Wikipedia emil abderhalden biography

Swiss biochemist and physiologist (–)

Emil Abderhalden (9 March – 5 August ) was a Swiss biochemist and physiologist. His main findings, though disputed already in the s, were not finally rejected until the late s. Whether his misleading findings were based on fraud or simply the result of a lack of scientific rigour remains unclear. Abderhalden's drying pistol, used in chemistry, was first described by one of his students in a textbook Abderhalden edited.

Biography

Emil Abderhalden was born in Oberuzwil in the Canton of St. Gallen in Switzerland. He moved to Basel to study at the University of Basel.

During his time in Basel, he joined the rowing club and was a founding member of FC Basel. Eleven men attended the meeting of founding Fussball Club Basel on 15 November Abderhalden played his first game for the club in the home game in the Stadion Schützenmatte on 22 September as Basel won 2–0 against FC Gymnasia. Abderhalden left the club in January

Abderhalden studied medicine at the University of Basel and received his doctorate in He then studied in the laboratory of Emil Fischer and worked at the University of Berlin. In he moved to the University of Halle and taught physiology in the medical school. From to , he was president of the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina. In he was appointed member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.

During World War I, he established a children's hospital and organized the removal of malnourished children to Switzerland. Subsequently, he resumed his research into physiological chemistry and began to study metabolism and food chemistry.

After World War II, Abderhalden returned to Switzerland in and lectured physiological chemistry at the University of Zurich as the replacement of Bonifaz Flaschenträger, who had to leave due to his membership in the NSDAP. He died there at age

Blood test for pregnancy

Medical diagnostic method

The Abderhalden reaction was a blood test for pregnancy developed by Emil Abderhalden.

In Abderhalden found that on identification of a foreign protein in the blood, the body reacts with a "defensive fermentation" (in modern terms, a protease reaction) that causes disintegration of the protein. He developed the test in This test became a subject of contention soon after its development, and a significant body of work was published both in support of and refuting the test's reliability. One such publication concluded "the individual variations of both pregnant and non-pregnant sera make the results from both overlap so completely as to render the reaction, even with quantitative technique, absolutely indecisive for either positive or negative diagnosis of pregnancy." (Van Slyke et al. ). The test's overall unreliability led to its being superseded in by the Aschheim–Zondek test. Due to Abderhalden's high reputation, it was not internationally acknowledged until long after his death that the underlying theory of "defensive enzymes" (Abwehrfermente) was entirely fraudulent (Deichmann & Müller-Hill ).

References

Emil Abderhalden (Oberuzwil, 9 marzo – Zurigo, 5 agosto) è stato un biochimicosvizzero.

Biografia

Al centro dei suoi studi furono gli amminoacidi e il metabolismo proteico. È noto per aver inventato nel un test (reazione di Abderhalden) per determinare la gravidanza in base alla presenza di proteine "estranee" nel sangue. Il test, però, si rivelò inaffidabile e fu sostituito nel dal test di Ascheim-Zondek.

All'epoca Abderhalden godeva di un alto prestigio e fu solo dopo la sua morte che divenne noto il carattere erroneo delle sue teorie. Abderhalden, infatti, aveva ipotizzato l'esistenza di Abwehrfermente ("enzimi di difesa"), ovvero proteasi stimolate dalla risposta immunologica. Questa teoria sembrò confermata da numerose osservazioni sperimentali fatte dai suoi collaboratori. Si scoprì però che tali verifiche furono eseguite scartando tutti i risultati negativi e procedendo fino ad arrivare a quelli positivi. Abderhalden era considerato in Germania il fondatore della biochimica ed era molto difficile fare un'indagine sul suo lavoro senza avere ripercussioni negative sulla carriera (come successe a Leonor Michaelis a metà degli anni dieci).

Più tardi le teorie di Abderhalden furono usate da alcuni scienziati nazisti, come Josef Mengele, per sviluppare un test al fine di individuare il sangue ariano da quello "non ariano".

Altri progetti

Collegamenti esterni

• Abderhalden, Emil, su – Enciclopedie on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana.
• Abderhaldern, Emil, su , De Agostini.
• (IT,&#;DE,&#;FR) Emil Abderhalden, su , Dizionario storico della Svizzera.
• (EN) Opere di Emil Abderhalden, su Open Library, Internet Archive.

See also: Abderhalden and Rudolf Abderhalden

Emil Abderhalden (March 9 - August 5 ) was a Swiss biochemist and physiologist. He was born in Oberuzwil in the Canton of St. Gallen in Switzerland.

Emil Abderhalden studied medicine at the University of Basel and received his doctorate in He then studied in the laboratory of Emil Fischer and worked at the University of Berlin. In he moved to the University of Halle and taught physiology in the medical school. From to , he was president of the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina.

During World War I, he established a children's hospital and organized the removal of malnourished children to Switzerland. Subsequently, he resumed his research into physiological chemistry and began to study metabolism and food chemistry.

After World War II Abderhalden returned to Switzerland and a position at the University of Zurich. He died there at age

Scientific work and controversy

Abderhalden is known for a blood test for pregnancy, a test for cystine in urine, and for explaining the Abderhalden-Kaufmann-Lignac syndrome, a recessive genetic condition. He did extensive work in the analysis of proteins, polypeptides, and enzymes. His Abwehrfermente ("defensive enzymes") theory stated that immunological challenge will induce production of proteases. This was seemingly "proven" by many collaborators in Europe, although attempts to verify the theory abroad failed.

The pregnancy test was determined to be unreliable a few years after its inception (Van Slyke et al. ). In late Abderhalden's "defensive ferments reaction test" was applied to the differential diagnosis of dementia praecox from other mental diseases and from normals by Stuttgart psychiatrist August Fauser (), and his miraculous claims of success were soon replicated by researchers in Germany and particularly in the United States. However, despite the worldwide publicity this "blood test for madness" generated, with