Christoph Scholtissek

Christoph Scholtissek (born December 25, 1929 in Dortmund ) is a German biochemist and virologist . He is best known for his fundamental work and discoveries on animal and human influenza viruses .

Life

Christoph Scholtissek studied chemistry at the University of Mainz and began - after various scientific positions at the University of Heidelberg , Madison and the University of Naples - his virological research at the Max Planck Institute for Virus Research in Tübingen with Werner Schäfer , the nestor of virology in Germany at the time. Here he worked on the proliferation and Biochemistry of the pathogen of classical avian influenza , the avian influenza viruses. In 1964 he followed his colleague Rudolf Rott from Tübingen as C3 professor for biochemistry and virology at the Institute for Virology in Giessen , where he worked until his retirement in 1995. As an emeritus, he continued his research in his field, was visiting professor at the Department of Virology and Molecular Biology at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis and continues to publish on influenza viruses.

Researches

Among other things, he demonstrated that the genome of influenza viruses is segmented and that this gives the viruses the high genetic variability in new pandemics . The epidemiological importance of the domestic pig in the mixture of human, porcine and avian influenza virus strains to newly arranged viruses was largely recognized by him. The name mixing vessel for this special position of pigs in the epidemiology and genetics of influenza viruses goes back to Scholtissek . He was the first to succeed in establishing temperature-sensitive mutations for studying the function of virus proteins in influenza viruses, and he described the importance of phosphorylation of the nucleoprotein during virus replication. Since the 1960s he has been working on specific inhibitors of virus replication that could be used in the treatment of influenza . Over 200 publications in scientific journals reflect his influence on modern virology in the 20th century.

Awards

• Dr. Fritz Merck Prize 1967
• Prize of the German Society for Hygiene and Microbiology 1981
• Loeffler Frosch Medal of the Society for Virology 2009

literature

• 2nd International Influenza Meeting, Münster 2010 (dedicated to Christoph Scholtissek)
• S. Pleschka, Ch. Müller: The Influenza. Spiegel der Forschung (Justus Liebig University), 2013, No. 2, pp. 84–86 ( PDF )
• Klaus Munk: Virology in Germany: the development of a specialty. Karger, Freiburg i. B. (1995) ISBN 3-8055-6004-4 pp. 24-26, 116