Harold Copp

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Signature of D. Harold Copp

Douglas Harold Copp (born January 16, 1915 in Toronto , † March 17, 1998 in Vancouver ) was a Canadian biochemist and physiologist at the University of British Columbia . He is best known for discovering the hormone calcitonin .

Life

Harold Copp's parents were Charles Joseph Copp, a family doctor, and Edith Mabel Copp, nee O'Hara. Harold Copp first studied physics and chemistry at the University of Toronto . His brother John, who had studied medicine, died violently by a burglar, and Harold Copp chose to play his part and turned to medicine himself.

After completing his medical degree at the University of Toronto in 1939 ( MD with honors), Copp obtained a Ph.D. in 1943 at the University of California, Berkeley , with the thesis A study of iron metabolism with the aid of the radioactive isotope 55 F . in biochemistry . Subsequently, he worked both as a lecturer (instructor) at the University, as well as (at the suggestion of Joseph Gilbert Hamilton ) for the Manhattan Project of the United States to develop a nuclear bomb . Here he investigated the effect of the radiation of bone- affine nuclides on the human bone marrow .

After World War II , Copp worked as an assistant professor at the University of California, Berkeley, where he dealt with bone metabolism. In 1950 he became a professor of physiology at the newly established Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver . In 1980 he retired, but kept his research laboratory until 1993.

Copp had been married to Winnifred "Freddie" Thompson since 1939. The couple had three daughters. Copp died of leukemia .

Act

Copp was able to make important contributions to the study of calcium homeostasis . In particular, he was able to prove the existence of the hormone calcitonin (1961) and show its direct influence on the calcium level in the blood. The suspected origin from the parathyroid glands was soon corrected by Iain MacIntyre (it is actually produced by the C cells of the thyroid gland). Calcitonin quickly became a common therapeutic agent for osteoporosis , Paget's disease , rheumatoid arthritis, or hypercalcemia . In 1969 sequencing and synthesis of the peptide hormone succeeded . Copp deliberately refrained from patenting calcitonin.

Copp operated in particular comparative physiology between fish and mammals . Already retired, he discovered more hormones that regulate calcium levels in bony fish the Teleocalcin and Stanniocalcin .

Awards

The building that houses the University of British Columbia's Physiology Department has been called the D. Harold Copp Building since 1980 . Since 1996 there has been a D. Harold Copp Lectureship in his honor at the university .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b D. Harold Copp MD, PhD, FRSC at the Gairdner Foundation (gairdner.org); Retrieved April 21, 2014
  2. ↑ a b D. Harold Copp, CC, MD, LL.D., FRSC with the Governor General of Canada (gg.ca); Retrieved April 21, 2014
  3. ^ The Flavelle Medal at the Royal Society of Canada (rsc-src.ca); accessed on April 16, 2019
  4. ↑ Dr. Douglas Copp - Canadian Medical Hall of Fame. In: cdnmedhall.org. Retrieved February 24, 2016 .
  5. ^ Douglas Harold Copp at the Canadian Science and Engineering Hall of Fame (sciencetech.technomuses.ca); Retrieved April 21, 2014
personal data
SURNAME Copp, Harold
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Copp, Douglas Harold (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Canadian biochemist and physiologist from the University of British Columbia
DATE OF BIRTH January 16, 1915
PLACE OF BIRTH Toronto
DATE OF DEATH March 17, 1998
Place of death Vancouver