Jean Lindenmann

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jean Lindenmann (born  September 18, 1924 in Zagreb , †  January 15, 2015 in Zurich ) was a Swiss virologist and immunologist . He worked at the University of Zurich from 1964 as associate professor and from 1969 as full professor at the Institute for Medical Microbiology and from 1980 to 1992 as Director of the Institute for Immunology and Virology.

Together with the Briton Alick Isaacs , he discovered the substance interferon and thus the first cytokine in 1957 . In later work he devoted himself to defense and resistance mechanisms against viral infections and oncolytic viruses . For his research he received the Robert Koch Prize in 1973 and the Marcel Benoist Prize in 1976 .

Life

Jean Lindemann was born to Swiss parents in Zagreb and graduated from the University of Zurich to study medicine , which he in 1951 with the state examination and doctoral graduated. He then worked from 1952 to 1956 as a post-doctoral student at the University's Institute for Hygiene. In 1956/1957 he conducted research on a grant from the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences at the National Institute for Medical Research in London , where he worked with the British virologist Alick Isaacs .

After returning to Switzerland, he initially worked as a lecturer at the Institute for Hygiene in Zurich until 1959 and then as a bacteriologist at the Federal Office of Public Health until 1962 . From 1962 to 1964 he was visiting professor at the University of Florida at Gainesville . In 1964 he was appointed associate professor and five years later full professor at the Institute for Medical Microbiology at the University of Zurich. From 1980 until his retirement in 1992, he was director of the University's Institute for Immunology and Virology.

Lindenmann died on January 15, 2015 in Zurich at the age of 90.

Scientific work

Jean Lindemann discovered during his time in London together with Alick Isaacs in virus-infected cell cultures , the interferon and the first member of the class of cytokines . These endogenous substances that regulate cell growth and differentiation are among other things of fundamental importance for the immune response and hematopoiesis . The discovery of interferon by Lindemann and Isaacs had a profound impact on immunology, virology, and cancer research , and was one of the major breakthroughs in biomedical science in the 1950s. As part of his further research, Jean Lindenmann dealt with the antiviral Mx protein and other defense and resistance mechanisms against viral infections as well as with oncolytic viruses .

Awards

In recognition of his scientific achievements, Jean Lindenmann received the Robert Koch Prize in 1973 , the Marcel Benoist Prize in 1976 , the Cancer Prize of the Swiss Cancer League in 1987 and the European Virology Award of the European Society for Virology in 2007 .

Works (selection)

  • Recent Aspects of Virus Interference. Series: Results of Microbiology, Immunology and Experimental Therapy. Volume 33/8. Berlin, Göttingen and Heidelberg 1960
  • Introduction to bacteriological diagnostics. A guide for the small laboratory. Basel 1960
  • Immunological Aspects of Viral Oncolysis. Series: Recent Results in Cancer Research. Volume 9. Heidelberg and New York 1967 (as co-editor)
  • Interferon: The new Hope for Cancer. Reading, MA 1981 (as co-author)
  • Medical microbiology: immunology, bacteriology, mycology, virology, parasitology. Sixth edition. Thieme, Stuttgart 1986, ISBN 3-13-444807-6 . (as co-editor)
  • Interferon: The Dawn of Recombinant Protein Drugs. Berlin and New York 1999 (as co-editor)

literature

  • Charles Weissmann: In Praise of a Prepared Mind - A Retrospective on Jean Lindenmann. In: Journal of Interferon Research. 7 (5) / 1987. Mary Ann Liebert Inc., pp. 439/440, ISSN  0197-8357
  • Lindenmann, Jean (1924–). In: Arthur M. Silverstein: A History of Immunology. Second edition. Academic Press, Amsterdam 2009, ISBN 0-12-370586-X , p. 487
  • Jean Lindenmann: Of Mice and Men - The Mx Connection. In: Comprehensive Biochemistry. 44/2005. Elsevier, pp. 267–295, ISSN  0069-8032 (autobiographical memories)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Swiss immunologist Lindenmann is dead. Obituary by sda on Basler Zeitung online from January 20, 2015 (accessed on January 20, 2015).
personal data
SURNAME Lindenmann, Jean
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss virologist and immunologist
DATE OF BIRTH September 18, 1924
PLACE OF BIRTH Zagreb
DATE OF DEATH January 15, 2015
Place of death Zurich