Friedrich Miescher

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Friedrich Miescher.
Memorial plaque at the Tübingen workplace

Friedrich Miescher (born August 13, 1844 in Basel , † August 26, 1895 in Davos ) - full name: Johannes Friedrich Miescher , partly also Johann Friedrich Miescher-Rüsch (junior) - was a physician and professor of physiology at the University of Basel. He is known as the discoverer of nucleic acids (DNA) as the acidic components of the cell nucleus .

Life

He was the son of the physiologist and pathologist Friedrich Miescher-His (1811-1887) and nephew of the anatomist Wilhelm His (1831-1904). Miescher studied medicine in Göttingen and Basel, graduating in 1868. Then he went to the laboratory of Felix Hoppe-Seyler at the University of Tübingen , which was then in Hohentübingen Castle (now a museum). In 1869 he went to the Physiological Institute of the University of Leipzig and in 1870 back to the University of Basel , where he completed his habilitation in 1871 and in 1872 became a full professor of physiological chemistry.

In 1869 Miescher discovered the nucleic acid in an extract from pus cells (white blood cells) at Hoppe-Seyler in Tübingen and called it “nucleic” - derived from the Latin nucleus , “core”. He examined its properties and found that it only occurs in the nucleus, and not only in pus cells, but also in the nuclei of many other cells. He also discovered that it contained phosphorus. He carried out more detailed analyzes of the substance, especially with regard to the separation of the nucleic acids and proteins contained therein, only later. Hoppe-Seyler delayed the publication because he wanted to check the results first. Miescher's publication was not published until 1871.

In Basel, under the influence of his uncle Wilhelm His, he worked with the semen of salmon (the nucleus of which is particularly rich in nucleic acids) in order to further investigate nucleic acids. Here he separated the proteins in the nucleus from the actual substance, which he characterized as nucleic acid and whose acidic character he identified in the phosphorus-containing fraction. As to what the nucleus was used for, he hesitated. In 1874 he believed in a role in fertilization, but later rejected similar assumptions by Richard von Hertwig . Richard Altmann first introduced the name nucleic acids in 1899. The distinction between DNA and RNA and the elucidation of their role in inheritance did not come about until much later in the 20th century.

Miescher also demonstrated that the regulation of the respiration of the CO 2 - concentration in the blood depends. He also dealt with the lifestyle and physiology of salmon and, partly on behalf of public clients, with nutritional issues.

In 1884 he was elected a member of the Leopoldina . He was a member of the Zofingia and in the years 1863–64 its Central President.

Appreciation

In 1969, the Friedrich Miescher Laboratory for biological working groups of the Max Planck Society, named after him, was founded in Tübingen by the Max Planck Society , where independent young researchers conduct basic biological research.

In memory of Friedrich Miescher, the Friedrich Miescher Institute in Basel launched the Friedrich Miescher Prize in 1969. The award is the highest national award in Switzerland for important research in the field of biochemistry.

In 1970 the companies Ciba and Geigy (today merged to Novartis ) founded the Friedrich Miescher Institute (FMI) in Basel , which conducts basic biomedical research.

In 2015, the museum room ' Tübingen Castle Laboratory - Cradle of Biochemistry' was set up in the premises of the former castle kitchen of the Museum of the University of Tübingen MUT . His main theme is the discovery of nucleic acids at this location by Friedrich Miescher.

literature

  • Ralf Dahm: The forgotten discoverer of DNA . Spectrum of Science, July 2010 issue, pages 50–57.
  • Ralf Dahm: Discovering DNA. Friedrich Miescher and the early years of nucleic acid research , Hum. Genet., Vol. 122, 2008, pp. 565-581
  • Ralf Dahm: Friedrich Miescher and the discovery of DNA , Dev. Biol., Volume 258, 2005, pp. 274-288
  • Manfred Girbardt : The beginnings of nucleic acid research. Pp. 347–349 in Science and Progress , August 1969 (19th year)
  • 100th anniversary of the discovery of nucleic acid: Basel, 21/22/1969 , Basel [u. a.]: Schwabe, 1970
  • Friedrich Miescher: 1844–1895; Lectures given on the occasion of the celebration of the 100th birthday of Prof. Friedrich Miescher in the auditorium of the University of Basel on June 15, 1944 , Basel: Schwabe, 1944,
  • Miescher, Johann Friedrich: The histochemical and physiological work , volume 1 and 2, collected u. ed. from his friends, Leipzig: Vogel, 1897
  • FH Portugal, JS Cohen: A century of DNA , MIT Press 1977

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ F. Miescher: About the chemical composition of the pus cells. online (PDF; 3.5 MB); published in Hoppe-Seyler's medical-chemical investigations, No. 4, 1871, pp. 441-460.
  2. ↑ Winfried Pötsch u. a., Lexicon of important chemists, Harri Deutsch 1989, p. 303, article Miescher
personal data
SURNAME Miescher, Friedrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss physiologist
DATE OF BIRTH August 13, 1844
PLACE OF BIRTH Basel
DATE OF DEATH August 26, 1895
Place of death Davos