death_place death_date birth_place birth_date known_for article_title name occupation
chicago , illinois , u.s.a. 13 september 2009 new orleans , louisiana , u.s.a. 12 august 1949 death caused by plague malcolm casadaban
 malcolm john casadaban genetic and cell biology professor
malcolm casadaban

malcolm casadaban -lrb- 12 august 1949 -- 13 september 2009 -rrb- was associate professor of molecular genetics and cell biology and of microbiology at the university of chicago .
casadaban died following an accidental laboratory exposure to an attenuated strain of `` yersinia pestis '' , a bacterium that causes the plague .
according to a cdc report on the incident , the strain that killed casadaban -lrb- kim d27 -rrb- had never been known to infect laboratory workers as it was an `` attenuated '' or weakened strain that had defective genes for iron uptake .
on autopsy , casadaban was found to have undiagnosed hereditary hemochromatosis -lrb- iron overload -rrb- which likely played a role in his death .
after receiving degrees at mit and harvard university , he became assistant professor at chicago in 1980 , and associate professor in 1985 .
he had also been associated with thermogen , a company he formed with two of his former graduate students in 1998 , to commercialize his work with thermophilic bacteria .
the company expanded to an annual revenue of about $ 2 million , but was sold to medichem , in 2000 ; this company in turn was later purchased by decode genetics .
he had 10 scientific publications cited over 100 times .
