Bernd Mayer (pharmacologist)

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Bernd Mayer (2015)

Bernhard-Michael Mayer , also Bernd Mayer (born July 25, 1959 in Graz ) is an Austrian pharmacologist and professor at the University of Graz .

Career

Mayer studied chemistry and physics in Graz and, after completing his dissertation at the University Children's Hospital under the supervision of Hermann Esterbauer at the Institute of Biochemistry, was awarded a Dr. phil. PhD. He then worked as a university assistant at the Institute for Pharmacodynamics and Toxicology until 1987 . From 1988 to 1991 Mayer conducted research as a fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and research assistant at the Institute for Pharmacology at the Free University of Berlin with Eycke Böhme and Günter Schultz . After returning to Graz in 1991, he qualified as a professor in biochemical pharmacology. From 1991 to 1998 he was associate professor at the Institute for Pharmacology and Toxicology, and from 1997 to 2004 also head of the institute. In 1999 he was appointed full university professor of pharmacology and toxicology. From 1998 to 2002 Mayer headed the Graz section of the Austrian Society for Molecular Biosciences and Biotechnology . From 2003 to 2012 Mayer was a member of the board of trustees in the Biomed department of the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) .

Since 2004 he has headed the pharmacology and toxicology department at the then newly founded Institute for Pharmaceutical Sciences in Graz.

research

Mayer is concerned with biological signal processing in blood vessels and in the heart. The focus of his work is nitric oxide (NO), NO synthases , cyclic GMP , oxidative stress , and organic nitrates .

In 2014 he published a paper on the lethal dose of nicotine . There he identified Rudolf Kobert's textbook on intoxications from 1906 as the source for the previously generally accepted lethal dose of nicotine (50–60 mg) in humans. Kobert's estimate was based on questionable self-experiments described by the Viennese pharmacologist Karl Damian von Schroff in 1856. On the basis of poisoning cases with documented nicotine blood levels, Mayer suggests in the journal article 500 to 1000 mg as the lower limit for the lethal effect of orally ingested nicotine on humans.

Since 2005 he has been working on the health aspects of electronic cigarettes and is publicly committed to the acceptance of these products as a less harmful alternative to tobacco cigarettes.

Awards and honors

  • 1989 Alexander von Humboldt Foundation scholarship
  • 1993 Herba Prize
  • 1995 Sandoz Prize for Biology
  • 1999 State of Styria Research Prize
  • 2009 Erwin Schrödinger Prize of the Austrian Academy of Sciences
  • 2010 Corresponding member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences
  • 2013 Phönix Science Prize for Pharmacy (Pharmacology)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://pharmazie.uni-graz.at/en/research/pharmacology-toxicology/mayer-schrammel-gorren/project-nitroglycerin/
  2. ↑ http://pharmazie.uni-graz.at/en/research/pharmacology-toxicology/mayer-schrammel-gorren/project-atgl/
  3. ↑ http://pharmazie.uni-graz.at/en/research/pharmacology-toxicology/gorren/role-of-tetrahydrobiopterin-in-nitric-oxide-synthesis/
  4. ↑ B. Mayer: How much nicotine kills a human? Tracing back the generally accepted lethal dose to dubious self-experiments in the nineteenth century. In: Archives of Toxicology . Volume 88, number 1, January 2014, pp. 5-7, DOI: 10.1007 / s00204-013-1127-0 , PMID 24091634 , PMC 3880486 (free full text).
personal data
SURNAME Mayer, Bernd
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mayer, Bernhard-Michael
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian pharmacologist and toxicologist
DATE OF BIRTH July 25, 1959
PLACE OF BIRTH Graz