Robert "Bob" DeMars

1928 - 2023

Robert "Bob" DeMars

MADISON - Shortly before Thanksgiving of 2023, Robert "Bob" DeMars of Madison, WI, passed away peacefully at age 95.

Bob was born in 1928 in New York City to Rhoda and Joseph DeMars. Despite growing up during the Great Depression, Bob received a superb public education in grade school and at the Bronx High School of Science. He went on to attend the tuition-free College of The City of New York as a Biology major. As an adult, Bob remained grateful to the city and state of New York for the investments they made in education, and was a strong advocate for public schools throughout his life.

Bob attended Graduate School at Indiana University and the University of Illinois-Urbana, studying the genetics and development of bacteriophages with future Nobel Prize winner Salvador Luria. He received a Ph.D. in Bacteriology in 1953. After a year as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the California Institute of Technology, he was appointed instructor in Microbiology at Washington University School of Medicine-St. Louis in 1955. Later, he worked as a senior scientist at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD, where he met his wife, Ann. In 1959, Bob became an instructor in the newly created Department of Medical Genetics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he remained as Professor until his retirement in 2014. Bob deeply appreciated the recognition of his research and teaching efforts when his colleagues awarded him a "Hilldale Award for Excellence in Teaching and Research in the Biological Sciences" and named him the "Tracy M. Sonneborn Professor of Medical Genetics, Genetics and Human Oncology." Just a few research highlights of his distinguished career are provided at the end of the obituary.

Bob and Ann raised their family in the Crestwood neighborhood of Madison, a lovely community that sustained them and their family up to the ends of their lives. Bob always found time to spend with his kids and grandkids as they grew up, whether exploring natural places, reading books, making paper airplanes, or conducting mini science experiments. Bob was an avid birdwatcher, and shared this interest with family, friends and colleagues on trips far and wide. On one of their more memorable adventures, Bob and Ann caravanned with neighbors to Kearney, NE, to view thousands of Sandhill Cranes resting on the Platte River before continuing their northward migration. Thousands of cranes filled the air, bugling loudly. It was the experience of a lifetime! Cranes mate for life and so did Bob and Ann. She died one week after their 60th anniversary in 2018. Ann and Bob share a gravestone adorned with a pair of dancing cranes.

Bob was preceded in death by his parents, brother, and sister. He is survived by children: Matthew (Elsy), Adam (Jill), Amy (Rich), and Mark; by grandchildren: Christina, Logan and Heather; and great-grandchild, Josef.

His children are especially grateful to the medical staff at UW Hospital for helping ease Bob to his final day with exceptional skill and compassion.

A celebration of Bob's life will be planned for spring of 2024.

For online condolences visit www.cressfuneralservice.com.

Suggested memorial donations may be made to Madison Public Schools Foundation, the Robert and Ann DeMars Lecture in Genetics Fund, or Badgerland Bird Alliance.

Highlights of Bob's scientific research:

At NIH, Bob pioneered a new kind of genetics research that utilized human cells cultured by the millions in the laboratory. He and co-workers learned how to induce mutations by treating cells with a chemical mutagen or by irradiating them with gamma rays that delete segments of DNA from chromosomes. These studies resulted in the discovery of new genes in the human major histocompatibility complex ("MHC"), a cluster of genes that produce proteins that are essential in the body's immune response to infection. Overlapping deletions induced by gamma rays allowed genes in the MHC to be aligned on the chromosome in a way that had not previously been feasible. A succession of irradiations and mutant selections was used to create a remarkable mutant that completely lacked one type of MHC protein. Transfer of individual cloned MHC genes into this mutant resulted in mutant cell lines that remain invaluable research tools to this day.

In his research, he cooperated with clinicians to link basic laboratory research to solving medical genetic problems. For example, he greatly reduced the incidence of the devastating, untreatable Lesch-Nyhan Syndrome through genetic testing and counseling of asymptomatic mothers who could unknowingly pass a mutant gene onto their sons.

After he retired at age 65, Bob was lured back to research on human immune responses to infections with Chlamydia trachomatis ("Ct") - the most common cause of sexually transmitted bacterial infections and of preventable blindness. His work demonstrated for the first time that DNA could be transferred from one Ct organism to another, and this DNA transfer increased the viability of Ct in the body. This first publication about Ct genetics was publicly acknowledged to be a landmark paper in the field. Bob was 80 years old at the time!

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