Emil von Behring

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Emil von Behring
Cameron Prize for Therapeutics of the University of Edinburgh (1894)
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1901)
Scientific career
FieldsPhysiology, immunology, ophthalmology
Notable studentsHans Schlossberger

Emil von Behring (German pronunciation:

Prussian nobility
in 1901, henceforth being known by the surname "von Behring."

Biography

Behring was born in Hansdorf, Kreis Rosenberg, Province of Prussia (now Ławice, Iława County, Poland). His father was a schoolmaster; the family had 13 children.

Between 1874 and 1878, he studied medicine at the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Akademie in

Poznan from 1881 to 1883 on an eye tumor case that ended up with the patient dying from leukemia, but it did allow for much needed research on treatments for the eye and what the preferred pathways for surgery would be. He learned under some of the great ophthalmologists such as Carl Ernst Schweigger and Wilhelm Uhthoff, leading to his interest in the subject and his writing his doctoral dissertation on it.[4]

In 1890 he published an article with

Cameron Prize for Therapeutics of the University of Edinburgh
.

In 1895 he became Professor of

Behring won the first Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1901 for the development of serum therapies against diphtheria. He was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1902.[9]

In 1904 he founded the Behringwerke in Marburg, a company to produce antitoxins and vaccines.

At the International Tuberculosis Congress in 1905 he announced that he had discovered "a substance proceeding from the virus of tuberculosis". This substance, which he designated "T C", plays the important part in the immunizing action of his "bovivaccine", which prevents bovine tuberculosis. He tried unsuccessfully to obtain a protective and therapeutic agents for humans.[10]

Laboratory of 1913 in the Wannkopfstraße in Marburg

Behring died at

Hessen-Nassau, on 31 March 1917. His name survived in the Dade Behring organisation (now part of the Siemens Healthineers), in CSL Behring, a manufacturer of plasma-derived biotherapies, in Novartis Behring and in the Emil von Behring Prize of the University of Marburg
, the highest endowed medicine award in Germany.

His Nobel Prize medal is now kept on display at the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum in Geneva.

Controversy

Von Behring is believed to have cheated Paul Ehrlich out of recognition and financial reward in relation to collaborative research in diphtheria. The two men developed a diphtheria serum by repeatedly injecting the deadly toxin into a horse. The serum was used effectively during an epidemic in Germany. A chemical company preparing to undertake commercial production and marketing of the diphtheria serum offered a contract to both men, but von Behring manoeuvered to claim all the considerable financial rewards for himself. To add insult to injury, only Behring received the first Nobel Prize in Medicine, in 1901, for his contributions.[11] However, Ehrlich went on to win the 1908 Nobel Prize in Medicine for his contribution to immunology.[12]

Villa Behring (burgundy) on Capri
Behring mausoleum in Marburg

Personal life

On 29 December 1896 Behring married the then twenty-year-old Else Spinola (1876-1936), who was a daughter of

Jewish-born mother – Elise Spinola, born Bendix – who had converted to Christianity upon her marriage.[13] They had six sons. They held their honeymoon at villa "Behring" on Capri 1897, where Behring owned a vacation home. In 1909–1911, the Russian writer Maxim Gorky
lived at this villa.

Publications

See also

  • German inventors and discoverers

References

  • Kornelia Grundmann (3 December 2001). "Emil von Behring: The founder of serum therapy". The Nobel Foundation. Retrieved 2008-07-21.
  • de Kruif, Paul (1926). "VI Roux and Behring: Massacre the Guinea Pigs". Microbe Hunters. Blue Ribbon Books. New York: Harcourt Brace & Company Inc. pp. 184–206. Retrieved October 14, 2020.
  • This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
    New International Encyclopedia (1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help
    )
  • Ulrike Enke: Salvatore dell'Infanzia Behring and Capri
  • Christoph Hans Gerhard : Trias deutschen Forschergeistes Emil von Behring Pflaum-Verlag / Munich Naturheilpraxis 71.Jahrgang January, 2018

Notes

  1. ^ Emil von Behring on Nobelprize.org Edit this at Wikidata The Immune System: In Defence of our Lives, nobelprize.org
  2. ISSN 0002-8762
    .
  3. ^ "Emil von Behring - Biographical". www.nobelprize.org. Retrieved 2018-07-23.
  4. ^
    S2CID 22857078
    .
  5. .
  6. .
  7. .
  8. .
  9. ^ "Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter B" (PDF). American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 30 May 2011.
  10. ^ Emil von Behring Serum Therapy in Therapeutics and Medical Science. Nobel Lecture, December 12, 1901. nobelprize.org
  11. . happy accidents.
  12. NobelPrize.org
  13. ^ Derek S. Linton, Emil von Behring: Infectious Disease, Immunology, Serum Therapy, American Philosophical Society, 2005, p. 198

External links