Gilbert Dalldorf

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Gilbert Dalldorf (born March 12, 1900 in Davenport , Iowa ; † December 21, 1979 ) was an American virologist and pathologist who for the first time isolated and characterized the so-called Coxsackie viruses .

Life

Dalldorf studied at the State University of Iowa with a bachelor's degree in 1921 and then medicine at the Bellevue Hospital Medical School of the University of New York with a degree in 1924. For further training, he went to Ludwig Aschoff at the Pathological Institute of the University of Freiburg . In 1926 he became an assistant pathologist and in 1927 a pathologist at New York Hospital; in New York he was a student of James Ewing . From 1926 to 1932 he was an instructor in pathological anatomy at Cornell Medical College and from 1929 to 1943 pathologist at Grasslands Hospital in Valhalla, New York . In 1943 he became director of the Division of Laboratories and Research of Westchester County and in 1945 the director of the Division of Laboratories and Research of the New York State Department of Health in Albany, succeeding Augustus B. Wadsworth . In 1958 he became the research director of the March of Dimes and a member of the Sloan Kettering Institute for Cancer Research (which he remained until 1967).

In addition to his positions in health care, he was also a professor first at Albany Medical College (pathology, bacteriology), then as visiting professor at the University at Buffalo (virology) and the Harvard School of Public Health (microbiology) and finally at the Sloan Kettering Division of Cornell University Medical College.

He dealt particularly with polio cases and infected himself with the virus. In doing so, he discovered in monkeys that the lymphocytic chloriomeningitis virus could protect animals from being crippled by polioviruses. Many more cases were discovered later in which viruses can influence each other to replicate. In studying polio in young children, he looked for alternatives to using expensive monkeys as test animals and introduced newborn mice (still suckled by the mother) as test animals. Together with his colleague Grace Sickles, he discovered that there are viruses that cause the same symptoms as mild forms of poliomyelitis, the Coxsackie virus (named after the place where the polio cases Coxsackie broke out ). In further investigations, the Dalldorf Coxsackie viruses could be divided into types A and B.

During his time as director of the laboratory in Albany, the discovery of fungicides by Rachel Fuller Brown and Elizabeth Lee Hazen ( nystatin ) also occurred , for which Dalldorf quickly found a pharmaceutical company ( Squibb ) to produce them. The proceeds went to research. Most recently he studied Burkitt's lymphoma in Africa.

In 1959 he received the Lasker ~ DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award . In 1953 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Bowdoin College and in 1957 from the University of Freiburg. In 1964 he received the medal from the New York Academy of Medicine. In 1955 he became a member of the National Academy of Sciences .

He was married to the doctor Frances Barhart. He was a pilot with his own aircraft and last lived in Oxford on Chesapeake Bay.

Fonts

  • with Sickles: An Unidentified, Filtrable Agent Isolated From the Feces of Children With Paralysis, Science, Volume 108, 1948, pp. 61-62

Web links

References and comments

  1. ↑ They had already been used in 1947 by the Danish virologists Orskov and Anderson when studying a mouse virus ( Theiler virus ), which suggested that Dalldorf should use them.
  2. ^ Gilbert Dalldorf and Grace M. Sickles: An Unidentified, Filtrable Agent Isolated From the Feces of Children With Paralysis . In: Science (New York, NY) . tape 108 , no. 2794 , July 16, 1948, p. 61-62 , doi : 10.1126 / science.108.2794.61 , PMID 17777513 .
  3. ↑ Gilbert Dalldorf and Grace M. Sickles: A virus recovered from the feces of poliomyelitis patients pathogenic for suckling mice . In: The Journal of Experimental Medicine . tape 89 , no. 6 , June 1, 1949, pp. 567-582 , doi : 10.1084 / jem.89.6.567 , PMID 18144319 , PMC 2135891 (free full text).
  4. ↑ The use of newborn mice (no older than one week) was of crucial importance because older animals showed no symptoms
personal data
SURNAME Dalldorf, Gilbert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American virologist and pathologist
DATE OF BIRTH March 12, 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH Davenport , Iowa
DATE OF DEATH December 21, 1979