Benno Müller-Hill

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Benno Müller-Hill (born February 5, 1933 in Freiburg im Breisgau ; † August 11, 2018 ) was a German biochemist and professor of genetics at the University of Cologne . His scientific successes include the isolation of the lac repressor and the discovery of the amyloid precursor protein (amyloid precursor protein, APP) in 1966 and 1987. Müller-Hill also addressed the scientific history of biomedical research under National Socialism .

Life

The son of the Swede Daisy Müller-Hill (née Hill) and the German public prosecutor Werner Otto Müller-Hill (1885–1977) studied chemistry in Freiburg and Munich . He spent three years doing research with Walter Gilbert in the laboratory of James Watson at Harvard University . In 1966 he succeeded in isolating the Lac repressor together with Walter Gilbert . In 1968 he was appointed professor of genetics at the University of Cologne, where he taught until his retirement. During this time, his research group also discovered the amyloid precursor protein , the cleavage of which plays an important role in the development of Alzheimer's disease . Benno Müller-Hill had a long-standing friendship with the geneticist and immunologist Klaus Rajewsky . In 1984 he published the book "Tödliche Wissenschaft" about the history of human genetics and the crimes of German scientists during the Nazi era . The book was published in English in 1988 and was translated into seven other languages ​​in the following years. In addition to 120 original scientific papers and 24 book chapters on genetics, Müller-Hill's list of publications also contains around 130 papers on the history of science and several literary texts.

Müller-Hill died on August 11, 2018 at the age of 85. On September 1, 2018, a funeral service took place at the Melaten central cemetery in Cologne ; the urn was buried in Freiburg i. Br.

Others

Müller-Hill agreed to publish his father's war diary. It was first published in French in 2011 (Journal de guerre d'un juge militaire allemand - 1944-1945) and then in German in 2012 ("You saw it coming, and yet you were shaken". The war diary of a German military judge 1944/45) .

Memberships

Awards

Publications (selection)

Magazine articles

  • Genetics of susceptibility to tuberculosis: Mengele's experiments in Auschwitz. In: National Review of Genetics , 2001 Aug; 2 (8): 631-634.
  • with Ute Deichmann : The fraud of Abderhaldens enzymes. In: Nature , 14 May 1998; 393 (6681). Pp. 109-111.
  • with A. Minn, M. Schubert, and WF Neiss: Enhanced GFAP expression in astrocytes of transgenic mice expressing the human brain-specific trypsinogen IV. Glia. 1998 Apr; 22 (4): pp. 338-347
  • with P. Kolkhof: DNA recognition and the code. In: Nature. 1994 Jun 23; 369 (6482) p. 614.
  • The shadow of genetic injustice. In: Nature. 1993 Apr 8; 362 (6420) pp. 491f.
  • Funding of molecular biology. Müller-Hill B. In: Nature. 1991 May 2; 351 (6321): 11-12.
  • The PreA4 (695) precursor protein of Alzheimer's disease A4 amyloid is encoded by 16 exons. Lemaire HG, Salbaum JM, Multhaup G, Kang J, Bayney RM, Unterbeck A, Beyreuther K , Muller-Hill B. Nucleic Acids Res. 1989 Jan 25; 17 (2): 517-522.
  • Molecular biology of Alzheimer's disease. Muller-Hill B, Beyreuther K. Annu Rev Biochem. 1989; 58: 287-307.
  • Identification, transmembrane orientation and biogenesis of the amyloid A4 precursor of Alzheimer's disease. Dyrks T, Weidemann A, Multhaup G, Salbaum JM, Lemaire HG, Kang J, Müller-Hill B, Masters CL, Beyreuther K. EMBO J. 1988 Apr; 7 (4): 949-957.
  • The precursor of Alzheimer's disease amyloid A4 protein resembles a cell-surface receptor. Kang J, Lemaire HG, Unterbeck A, Salbaum JM, Masters CL, Grzeschik KH, Multhaup G, Beyreuther K, Müller-Hill B. In: Nature. 1987 Feb 19-25; 325 (6106): 733-736.
  • Human antisera detect a Plasmodium falciparum genomic clone encoding a nonapeptide repeat. Koenen M, Scherf A, Mercereau O, Langsley G, Sibilli L, Dubois P, Pereira da Silva L, Müller-Hill B. Nature. 1984 Sep 27-Oct 3; 311 (5984): 382-385.
  • Lac repressor can be fused to beta-galactosidase. Müller-Hill B, Kania J .: In: Nature. 1974 Jun 7; 249 (457): 561-563.
  • How lac repressor binds to DNA. Adler K, Beyreuther K, Fanning E, Geisler N, Gronenborn B, Klemm A, Müller-Hill B, Pfahl M, Schmitz A .: In: Nature. 1972 Jun 9; 237 (5354): 322-327.
  • Direction of transcription of a regulatory gene in E. coli. Miller JH, Beckwith J, Muller-Hill B .: In: Nature. 1968 Dec 28; 220 (5174): 1287-1290.
  • The lac operator is DNA. Gilbert W, Muller-Hill B. Proc Natl Acad Sci US A. 1967 Dec; 58 (6): 2415-2421.
  • Isolation of the lac repressor. Gilbert W, Muller-Hill B. Proc Natl Acad Sci US A. 1966 Dec; 56 (6): 1891-1898.

Books

  • The lac operon: a short history of a genetic paradigm. de Gruyter , Berlin 1996, ISBN 3-11-014830-7
  • Deadly Science. The singling out of Jews, Gypsies and the mentally ill 1933–1945 . Rowohlt, Reinbek 1984 (2nd edition 1988) ISBN 3-499-15349-1 ; again Verlag Volk und Gesundheit, Berlin 1989, ISBN 3-333-00438-0 table of contents .
    • English edition: Murderous science: elimination by scientific selection of Jews, gypsies, and others in Germany 1933–1945 . Afterword by James D. Watson . Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, Plainview NY 1998, ISBN 0-87969-531-5
    • French: Science nazie, science de mort: L'Extermination des Juifs, des Tziganes et des malades mentaux de 1933 à 1945 . Odile Jacob 1989.
    • Italian: Scienza di morte. L'eliminazione degli ebrei, degli zigani e dei malati di mente (1933–1945) . ETS, ISBN 978-8877413932
  • The philosophers and the living. Campus, Frankfurt 1981, ISBN 3-593-32860-7

Selected essays and articles

  • Selection. The science of the biological selection of humans by humans. In: Norbert Frei (Hrsg.): Medicine and health policy in the Nazi era. R. Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 1991 (= writings of the quarterly books for contemporary history. Special issue), ISBN 3-486-64534-X , pp. 137–155.
  • The blood of Auschwitz and the silence of the scholars. In: Doris Kaufmann (Ed.): History of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society in National Socialism. Wallstein, Göttingen 2000, ISBN 3-89244-423-4 , pp. 190 ff.
  • Science, Truth and Other Values. In: The Quarterly Review of Biology. Volume 68, 1993, pp. 399-407.
  • Deadly Science. In: The time. July 13, 1984, Zeit-Online, accessed August 20, 2018.

literature

  • Karl Heinz Roth: Genetic research in confrontation with Nazi anthropology - the life's work of the geneticist and science historian Benno Müller-Hill (1933-2018) . In: Sozial.Geschichte Online / Social.History Online, Heft 24, 2019, pp. 11-36 ( doi: 10.17185 / duepublico / 47937 ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Frankfurter Allgemeine obituary , accessed on August 20, 2018
  2. ^ W. Gilbert, B. Müller-Hill: Isolation of the lac repressor. In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America . Volume 56, Number 6, December 1966, pp. 1891-1898, ISSN  0027-8424 . PMID 16591435 . PMC 220206 (free full text).
  3. ↑ J. Kang, HG Lemaire, A. Unterbeck, JM Salbaum, CL Masters, KH Grzeschik, G. Multhaup, K. Beyreuther, B. Müller-Hill: The precursor of Alzheimer's disease amyloid A4 protein resembles a cell-surface receptor. In: Nature . Volume 325, Number 6106, 1987 Feb 19-25, pp. 733-736, ISSN  0028-0836 . doi : 10.1038 / 325733a0 . PMID 2881207 .
  4. ^ B. Müller-Hill: Genetics of susceptibility to tuberculosis: Mengele's experiments in Auschwitz. In: Nature Reviews Genetics . Volume 2, Number 8, August 2001, pp. 631-634, ISSN  1471-0056 . doi : 10.1038 / 35084588 . PMID 11483987 .
  5. ↑ B. Müller-Hill: [Remembrance and denial. A critical look into correspondence of Adolf Butenandt, MPG president 1960-1972]. In: History and philosophy of the life sciences. Volume 24, number 3-4, 2002, pp. 493-521, ISSN  0391-9714 . PMID 15045836 .
  6. ^ B. Müller-Hill: The blood from Auschwitz and the silence of the scholars. In: History and philosophy of the life sciences. Volume 21, Number 3, 1999, pp. 331-365, ISSN  0391-9714 . PMID 11197188 .
  7. ↑ B. Müller-Hill, K. Beyreuther: Molecular biology of Alzheimer's disease. In: Annual review of biochemistry. Volume 58, 1989, pp. 287-307, ISSN  0066-4154 . doi : 10.1146 / annurev.bi.58.070189.001443 . PMID 2673012 .
  8. ^ K. Rajewsky: Years in Cologne. In: Annual review of immunology. Volume 31, 2013, pp. 1-29, ISSN  1545-3278 . doi : 10.1146 / annurev.immunol.021908.132646 . PMID 23140542 .
  9. ↑ See: Benno Müller-Hill: Tödliche Wissenschaft, in: Die Zeit, July 13, 1984, Zeit-Online, accessed on August 20, 2018.
  10. ^ Information from the Cologne cemetery administration on September 4, 2018
  11. ^ Siedler Verlag 2012, ISBN 978-3827500106
  12. ↑ a b Walter Habel (Ed.): Who is who? The German Who's Who. XLVI. Edition 2007/08. Lübeck 2007, p. 919.
personal data
SURNAME Müller-Hill, Benno
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German geneticist, biochemist and historian of science
DATE OF BIRTH February 5, 1933
PLACE OF BIRTH Freiburg in Breisgau
DATE OF DEATH 11th August 2018