Malcolm John Casadaban, New Orleans-born scientist, dies at 60 Times Picayune 11-27-2009 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ************************************************ A Mass will be said Saturday in Metairie for Dr. Malcolm John Casadaban, a New Orleans-born scientist who died Sept. 13 of an infection he might have contracted in his laboratory at the University of Chicago. He was 60. The Mass will be celebrated at 4 p.m. at St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church, 444 Metairie Road. Burial will be in St. Vincent's Cemetery in New Orleans. Dr. Casadaban, an associate professor of molecular genetics, had been studying the genetics of harmful bacteria, including a weakened strain that was found in his bloodstream, according to a statement from the University of Chicago Medical Center. Except for the presence of that strain, an autopsy "showed no obvious cause of death," the statement said. A graduate of Jesuit High School, Dr. Casadaban earned an undergraduate degree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a master's degree at Harvard University. He did postdoctoral study at Stanford University, and he had a research fellowship in the U.S. Public Health Service at the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Casadaban joined the University of Chicago faculty in 1980, and he continued work he had begun in graduate school to isolate specific bacterial genes, prevent them from being expressed and analyze their functions. Among the bacteria he studied was Yersinia pestis, which can cause bubonic, pneumonic and septicemic plague. However, Dr. Casadaban was using a strain lacking its harmful components, according to the university statement. Survivors include two daughters, Brooke Casadaban of Los Angeles and Leigh Casadaban of Boston; his parents, John and Dolores Casadaban of Metairie; two brothers, Emile and James Casadaban, both of Metairie; and four sisters, Kay Casadaban Marlowe and Donna Casadaban Lowe, both of Metairie, Adrianne Casadaban Cataline of Lafayette, Calif., and Annette Casadaban Gabler of McComb, Miss.