Driven by his innate sense of curiosity, Dr. Silverstein has explored mysteries from the immune system to Antarctica’s mountainous landscape, which is now home to the 15,720-foot Silverstein Peak.
Dr. Silverstein is a member of the Albert Einstein Legacy Society, which recognizes individuals—alumni, faculty, parents, and friends—who choose to advance Einstein’s mission and its future prosperity through legacy gifts in their estate plans. If you would like to speak to someone about creating a plan that best meets your philanthropic goals, visit einsteinmed.plannedgiving.org to explore your options, or contact Dorea Ferris, senior director of planned giving, at 718.430.3594 or dorea.ferris@einsteinmed.edu.
Samuel Silverstein, M.D. ’63
Dr. Silverstein’s specialty: Immunology
Title: Emeritus John C. Dalton Professor of Physiology & Cellular Biophysics and Professor of Medicine, Columbia University Medical Center
Medicine appeals to my sense of humanity, but research appeals to my sense of adventure. And in my life, adventure has always won out.
Pathology department chair Alfred Angrist [M.D.] focused my life. After performing an autopsy in my second-year class, he deduced from the nitrogen balance in the patient’s bones—despite knowing only the length of his illness—that he had a caring family, something I knew to be true from his medical records. When I asked Dr. Angrist how he knew, he said, ‘Feel the surface of this cross-section of bone. This man is in perfect nitrogen balance. No one with this much disease for this long is in perfect nitrogen balance without a loving, caring family.’ I said to myself, ‘That’s the kind of humanistic physician and insightful medical scientist I want to become’—then and forever after.
As a senior Einstein medical student in the labs of microbiologist Philip Marcus and cell biologist Alex Novikoff, I used electron microscopy to identify the mechanism used by influenza-like viruses to enter mammalian cells. I built on that work in the 1970s, as an associate professor in the laboratory of cellular physiology and immunology at Rockefeller University.
There I discovered how macrophages—a type of white blood cell that defends humans against microbial pathogens—discriminate between native and antibody-coated bacteria, both of which are in contact with a macrophage’s outer or plasma membrane. I showed that macrophages avidly ingest antibody-coated bacteria but ignore bacteria that are not coated with antibodies.
These experiments identified the general principle that white blood cells discriminate between microbes bound for ingestion and killing versus microbes that escape recognition by sensing interactions between the receptors that the white blood cells express on their plasma membranes and ligands for these receptors, such as antibodies, on the surfaces of microbes. I termed this process “zippering,” earning the nickname “Dr. Zipperstein.”
Samuel Silverstein, M.D., was part of an expedition in 1966 that made the first ascents of Antarctica’s four highest peaks.
Ever since high school in Colorado, I’ve had a passion for mountaineering. After reaching my first summit I decided I wanted to climb something that had never been climbed before. In 1966 I got that chance. As part of an expedition, I made the first ascents of Antarctica’s four highest peaks. I will never forget the feeling of joy and pride that comes with achieving a lifelong dream.
Without Einstein, I wouldn’t have had the career I’ve had. It is important to me to give back, and I’m glad that I can provide scholarship support for an Einstein medical or graduate student to set them up for their own adventures.
Honor the past and support our future by joining the Albert Einstein Legacy Society.
