Hans Lettré

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hans Heinrich Lettré (born November 29, 1908 in Elberfeld , † July 27, 1971 in Heidelberg ) was a German chemist , pharmacologist and cancer researcher . From 1942 he was a professor at the University of Göttingen and headed the Institute for Experimental Cancer Research at the University of Heidelberg from 1948 until his death . For his research, in which he was particularly concerned with the development of cytotoxic substances, he was awarded the Carl Duisberg Memorial Prize of the Society of German Chemists and the German National Prize.

Life

Hans Lettré was born in 1908 in what is now Wuppertal and attended the secondary school in Elberfeld from 1918 to 1927 . From 1927 he studied mathematics and chemistry at the universities of Munich and Göttingen , which he completed in 1932 with a doctorate in Göttingen . He then did research at Göttingen University as an assistant to Nobel Prize winner Adolf Windaus . After his habilitation in 1937, also in Göttingen, he became a private lecturer in 1938 .

In the following year he took over the management of the newly established chemical department at the General Institute against Tumor Diseases of the Rudolf Virchow Hospital in Berlin . In 1942 he returned to the University of Göttingen, where he was scheduled to be an associate professor for organic chemistry . Six years later he was appointed professor and director of the Institute for Experimental Cancer Research at the University of Heidelberg , which later became the Institute for Cell and Tumor Biology of the German Cancer Research Center . He held this position until his death. One of his employees at the Cancer Research Institute was Rudolf Gross , who later became internist in Cologne .

Hans Lettré was married from 1942 and died in Heidelberg in 1971 .

Scientific work

Hans Lettré, who published around 500 scientific publications during his career , dealt mainly with the chemistry of sterols and steroids during his time in Göttingen . He studied among others, the synthesis of cytotoxic effective derivatives of these substances. After moving to Berlin, he turned to the use of tissue cultures to test the effects of chemical substances on cell growth and derivatives of colchicine . In later work he also devoted himself to the mechanism of mitosis .

Awards

In recognition of his research achievements, Hans Lettré received the Carl Duisberg Memorial Prize of the Society of German Chemists in 1943 and the German National Prize (later the GDR National Prize) III in 1949 . Class, 1954 the Scheele Medal of the Chemical Society ( Kemiska sällskapet ) of Stockholm and 1966 the Wilhelm Warner Prize for cancer research. The "Renate and Hans Lettré Research Award" of the German Society for Cell and Tissue Cultivation is named after him and his wife, who also works as a cancer researcher.

Publications (selection)

  • About sterols, bile acids and related natural substances. Second edition. Stuttgart 1954 (Volume 1) and 1959 (Volume 2)
  • Current Problems in the Field of Cancerology. Berlin 1968

literature

personal data
SURNAME Lettré, Hans
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lettré, Hans Heinrich (full name); Lettré, Hanns
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German chemist, pharmacologist and cancer researcher
DATE OF BIRTH November 29, 1908
PLACE OF BIRTH Elberfeld
DATE OF DEATH July 27, 1971
Place of death Heidelberg