Ernst Habermann

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Ernst Richard Habermann (born July 31, 1926 in Gössenheim ; † January 22, 2001 ) was a German pharmacologist and toxicologist .

Life

After completing his dissertation at the medical faculty of the University of Würzburg in 1951, Habermann worked there as an assistant and later as an associate professor at the Pharmacological Institute until he was given a full professorship. From 1966 until his retirement in 1993 he was head of the Rudolf Buchheim Institute for Pharmacology in the Faculty of Medicine at the Justus Liebig University in Giessen .

From 1979 to 1982 Habermann was President of the German Society for Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology (DGPT). Habermann was a member of the Senate of the German Research Foundation .

Work areas

Habermann worked as a scientist in the field of animal toxins . At the beginning of his research career, these were mainly snake and insect poisons . The sequencing of the peptide sequences of the two rattlesnake toxins and the elucidation of their complex mechanisms of action were his first successes. His research into the venom of the honey bee ( Apis mellifera ) was groundbreaking. He characterized three highly specific peptides: the apamin , the melittin and the MCD peptide ( mast cell degranulating peptide ).

Habermann then devoted himself to the most toxic substances, the bacterial toxins tetanus and botulinum toxin from clostridia . To this end, he developed the so-called sandwich method as a special form of the ELISA test in order to be able to detect the smallest amounts of toxins, which are in the range of a few picograms . The sandwich method is a simple linkage test made up of suitable antibodies against the protein toxin to be determined. The sandwich method was used in medical diagnostics for the detection of the surface protein of the hepatitis B virus (HBs antigen, formerly known as Australia antigen) until the 1990s .

Habermann was the first to mark tetanus toxin with tracers . This enabled him to demonstrate the transport of the toxin via the peripheral motor nerve fibers into the motor anterior horn cells of the spinal cord . He was able to clarify how the 150 kilodalton molecule of the tetanus toxin crosses the blood-brain barrier . He was able to demonstrate the same mechanism for botulinum toxin (type A).

Habermann found that the tetanus toxin is composed of a heavy and a light peptide chain, with the heavier chain being responsible for navigating the toxin molecule in the body. Habermann introduced genetic engineering into pharmacology and clarified the peptide sequence of the tetanus toxin. He recognized a recurring sequence of only five amino acids in the light chain of all clostridial toxins. This sequence is characteristic of a zinc-dependent protease . He showed the enzymatic effect of the clostridial toxins, which enabled further research into the exocytosis apparatus during synaptic transmitter release .

Habermann was a committed fighter against charlatanry and a member, as well as in the science council of the board of the society for the scientific investigation of paraweek eV

He also dealt intensively with the nocebo effect .

Quotes

As chairman of the ethics committee of the Justus Liebig University in Giessen:

“The individual's right to informational self-determination is part of his or her person. B. his head, his body, his soul. This also applies to the patients entrusted to us. We must respect and protect this fundamental right of our patients as well as the integrity of their bodies. "

- Ernst Habermann

Publications

  • with H. Löffler: Special pharmacology and drug therapy. 4th, verb. u. exp. Edition. Springer, Berlin 1983, ISBN 3-540-12624-4 .
  • Bee and Wasp Venoms. In: Science . 177/1972, pp. 314-322.
  • Annual report 2002 of the University of Giessen ( Memento from June 11, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF file; 2.70 MB)
  • Ethical principles of drug therapy in the hospital. In: Hospital Pharmacy. 15/1994, pp. 623-630.
  • Therapeutic tests on incapable of giving consent in an emergency - ethically required and legally permissible? In: NJW. 46/2000, pp. 3389-3395.
  • Imaging of a nocebo phenomenon in the human brain by fMRI. DGPT Forum, In: Communications of the German Society for Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology. 26/2000, p. 63.
  • Facts and fallacies of alternative medicine. In: Biomarkers Environ. 2/1998, pp. 26-29.
  • The convergence of biosciences. In: Futura. 14/1999, pp. 272-279.
  • Poison and Nocebo: Two Aspects of Toxicology. In: W. Mücke (Ed.): Chemical Syndromes — Fiction or Reality? Institute for Toxicology and Environmental Hygiene of the Technical University of Munich, ISBN 3-932108-07-8 , pp. 23–43.
  • Stefan Deinhart, Joachim Stürmer, Ernst Habermann, Wolfgang E. Rosenberg, Kerstin Reuber, Reinhard Störiko, Christof Zang-Svojanovsky, JC Frölich, Veronika Rampold : An attempt at a lecture on homeopathy . In: Deutsches Ärzteblatt . tape 94 , no. 45 . Deutscher Ärzte-Verlag , November 7, 1997, p. A-3003 / B-2326 / C-2129 ( aerzteblatt.de ).
  • Iodine labeling of sea anemone toxin II, and binding to normal and denervated diaphragm. In: Arch. Pharmacol. 309: 165-170 (1979).

Honors

literature

  • D. Mebs: Obituary of Ernst Richard Habermann, 1926-2001. In: Toxicon . 40/2002, pp. 7-8.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b History of the RBI: First Pharmacological Institute in Germany and cradle of experimental pharmacology ( Memento from June 11, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ computerwoche from July 1, 1988, accessed on September 14, 2007 ( Memento of the original from September 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.computerwoche.de
  3. ^ Ernst Habermann, accessed on September 14, 2007
  4. ↑ Ch. Berndt: Just out of thin air? In: Munich Medical Weekly. 15/1999.
  5. ↑ Prof. em. Dr. Ernst Richard Habermann, deceased chairman of the ethics committee of JLU Giessen ( Memento from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  6. ↑ Office of the Federal President
personal data
SURNAME Habermann, Ernst
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Habermann, Ernst Richard (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German pharmacologist and toxicologist
DATE OF BIRTH July 31, 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH Goessenheim
DATE OF DEATH January 22, 2001