George Hoyt Whipple

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George Whipple

George Hoyt Whipple (born August 28, 1878 in Ashland , New Hampshire , USA , † February 1, 1976 in Rochester , New York , USA) was an American pathologist .

Life

George Whipple was appointed professor at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore in 1909, in 1914 he went to Berkeley at the University of California and in 1931 to Rochester.

Act

Whipple did important work on bile pigments and developed a diet against a certain form of anemia ( pernicious anemia ).

Up until 1926, over 6,000 people in the United States died of pernicious anemia (anemia caused by vitamin B 12 deficiency) each year . Whipple found, in experiments with anemic dogs, that a diet of liver, beans, and meat stimulated red blood cell production . William Parry Murphy and George Richards Minot developed a corresponding liver diet based on this. Later, the American doctor W. Castle demonstrated a substance in gastric juice ( intrinsic factor ) that prevents the destruction of vitamin B12 in gastric acid by binding to the molecule. Vitamin B 12 can be absorbed in the small intestine, which is necessary for erythrocytes to be produced. A deficiency in intrinsic factor therefore leads to vitamin B 12 deficiency anemia. In 1948/49 the chemists Karl August Folkers (1906–1997, USA) and A. Todd (Great Britain) succeeded in detecting vitamin B 12 ( extrinsic factor ), which is stored in the liver.

The Whipple's disease (named after George Hoyt Whipple) is a very rare disorder of the small intestine. It is caused by the bacteria Tropheryma whipplei . Men between 30 and 60 are preferably affected.

For their liver therapy against pernicious anemia he received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1934 together with George R. Minot and William P. Murphy . In 1939 Whipple received the George M. Kober Medal , in 1962 he was awarded the Jessie Stevenson Kovalenko Medal .

Whipple had been a member of the National Academy of Sciences since 1929 , of the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina since 1935 and of the American Philosophical Society since 1938 . In 1911 he became a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science .

literature

  • Leon L. Miller: George Hoyt Whipple . Ed .: National Academy of Sciences (=  Biographical Memoirs . Volume 66 ). National Academy Press, Washington DC 1995, ISBN 0-309-05037-5 , pp. 371-393 .

Web links

Commons : George Whipple  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Werner E. Gerabek : Whipple, Georg Hoyt. In: Werner E. Gerabek, Bernhard D. Haage, Gundolf Keil , Wolfgang Wegner (eds.): Enzyklopädie Medizingeschichte. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2005, ISBN 3-11-015714-4 , p. 1483.
  2. ^ Member entry by George Hoyt Whipple at the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina , accessed on October 12, 2012.
  3. ^ Member History: George H. Whipple. American Philosophical Society, accessed December 9, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Whipple, George Hoyt
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American pathologist
DATE OF BIRTH August 28, 1878
PLACE OF BIRTH Ashland , New Hampshire, USA
DATE OF DEATH February 1, 1976
Place of death Rochester , New York, USA