Edition: U.S. / Global

Bernard N. Fields, 56, Viral Researcher, Dies

Published: February 1, 1995

Dr. Bernard N. Fields, a leading microbiologist and virologist who strongly influenced the direction of viral research, died yesterday at his home in West Newton, Mass. He was 56.

The cause was pancreatic cancer, said officials of Harvard Medical School in Boston, where he was chairman of the department of microbiology and molecular genetics.

Dr. Fields formerly headed the division of infectious diseases at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston and the Albert Einstein Medical School in the Bronx.

As an architect of an expanded approach to studying viral infections, he is credited with spearheading the current resurgence of research on how viruses cause damage. He used the power of new molecular, genetic and cellular methods to take viruses apart and identify the functions of specific genes.

Dr. Fields did not make one discovery that revolutionized the field, nor did he originate the genetics-based approach to virology. But he "was the intellectual leader of the field for more than the last decade," said Dr. Harold Varmus, the director of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., which supported much of Dr. Fields's research.

Dr. Fields was the editor in chief of the standard textbook in the field, "Virology" (Raven Press, 1990). "He had an incredibly broad perspective on virology," Dr. Varmus said, and he "stuck with studying the mechanism of infection in the whole animal at a time when virtually everyone was focused on reductionism."

Dr. Fields was a leading candidate to become the Government's top AIDS research director early last year, although he did not directly work on H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS. But he withdrew from consideration because of the cancer, which was diagnosed in July 1992.

In an article in the journal Nature last May, he criticized the nation's AIDS research effort as too narrow in focus. He said success in controlling AIDS was as likely to arise from unrelated areas of research as from AIDS-directed programs.

The article became "marching orders" for AIDS research, said Dr. William E. Paul, director of the Office of AIDS Research at the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Fields also led a fight to preserve the smallpox virus, which was originally scheduled to be destroyed this year but was given a reprieve. In interviews, he pointed to recent research that identified surprising links between the smallpox virus and several natural substances that somehow allowed the virus to evade the body's defense mechanisms. Arguing that the smallpox virus might hold secrets to cancer and other major diseases, he argued for keeping the virus for at least 10 years, to explore clues that might eventually benefit humans.

In his own research, Dr. Fields studied the relationships between viruses and the cells of the animals or people they infected. He sought to determine why some viruses produce damage only in the area where they enter the body while many others spread through blood, lymph and the nervous system to attack specific organs. He also tried to help unravel why some viral infections end after a few days while others cause persistent infection.

Believing that the study of animal viruses that are generally harmless to humans could yield important benefits, he focused his studies on one called the reovirus. This polio-like virus rarely causes disease in humans but, if swallowed, produces nerve damage and inflammation of the brain in mice. The reovirus has a fairly simple structure and could easily be manipulated in the laboratory. Because reovirus shared many of the same features as more complex viruses, he believed it served as a general model for the study of viruses.

The aim of his research was to develop therapies to block the progress of infections once they begin and strategies for immunizations to prevent them in the first place. His work is being used to develop experimental vaccines for rotaviruses, which are a major cause of deadly diarrhea among infants, said a mentor, Dr. Wolfgang K. Joklik of Duke University.

Dr. Robert Channock, a virologist at N.I.H., said Dr. Fields was "in the pantheon of virologists" for his work studying selected mutants to determine how viral genes increase the spread of virus within the brain and produce specific damage in an anatomic area.

Bernard Nathan Fields was born in Brooklyn on March 24, 1938. He graduated from Brandeis University and earned a medical degree in 1962 from New York University, where he developed an interest in research. He was an intern and resident at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston before taking specialty training in infectious disease at the Massachusetts General Hospital.

In 1965, he joined what is now the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, where he studied classic virology and specialized in arboviruses, those transmitted by insects and other arthropods.

Two years later he went to the Albert Einstein College of Medicine to learn molecular biology and cell biology. In 1975, he moved to Harvard.

He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences and its Institute of Medicine and a former president of the American Society of Virology. He served as adviser and member of professional and government committees and published nearly 200 scientific articles.

Dr. Fields is survived by his wife, Ruth, of West Newton; five sons, John, of Vero Beach, Fla., Edward, of Boston, Michael, of Waltham, Mass., Daniel, of New York City, and Joshua, of Newton, Mass.; his mother, Martha, of Hallandale, Fla., and two brothers, Harvey, of Hollywood, Fla., and Allen, of Columbus, Ohio.

Photo: Dr. Bernard N. Fields (Associated Press, 1994)