September 1, 2006

A Scientist Finds His Life Changed

By LILA GUTERMAN

Although Katrina destroyed his home and nearly all his possessions, Arthur J. Lustig counted himself as relatively lucky in the weeks just after the hurricane. He still had his job as a professor of biochemistry at Tulane University and the resources to pursue his research.

A few days after the storm, when the power gave out, Mr. Lustig lost perhaps 80 percent of the frozen yeast strains he had spent decades developing. But a colleague who managed to get back to the university's Health