Karl Friedrich Meyer (pathologist)
Karl Friedrich Meyer (born May 19, 1884 in Basel , † April 27, 1974 in San Francisco ) was an American veterinarian , pathologist , epidemiologist and microbiologist from Switzerland , known for research on numerous infectious diseases.
Life
Karl Friedrich Meyer was the son of a cigar dealer in Basel and studied biology, zoology and histology from 1902 at the University of Basel and from 1903/04 at the University of Zurich , where he was supported by the anatomy professor Heinrich Zangger . In 1905 he was at the University of Munich with Friedrich von Müller and then at the University of Bern , where he studied veterinary medicine and attended pathology courses with Theodor Langhans . In 1909 he received his doctorate in veterinary medicine from the University of Zurich, with a dissertation that he completed in Bern with Wilhelm Kolle . From 1908 to 1910 he was in South Africa at the laboratories of the Ministry of Agriculture in Transvaal, where he worked as a pathologist under the Swiss veterinarian Arnold Theiler . He also developed vaccines against rabies and lung disease in cattle , where he found a new type of pathogen ( mycoplasma ), and researched East African coastal fever, a bovine disease. On his return to Switzerland (he cured his malaria disease), he accepted an offer as an assistance professor for veterinary medicine at the University of Pennsylvania through the mediation of the US ambassador to Switzerland . There he soon became a professor and researched the equine disease snot and brucellosis . In 1914 he became professor of bacteriology and protozoology at the University of California, Berkeley (where he taught medical bacteriology in the medical school and developed a curriculum in public health) and at the University of California, San Francisco . He stayed there for the rest of his career. Until 1948 he was head of the bacteriology department in Berkeley and San Francisco. From 1915 he conducted research at the George Williams Hooper Foundation Institute for Medical Research , where he succeeded George H. Whipple as director. During a sabbatical at the University of Zurich in 1924, he received his doctorate there in bacteriology. After his retirement in 1954 he was honorary director and held an honorary professorship at the Hooper Institute and remained scientifically active.
Scientific work
Meyer made important contributions to research into various infectious diseases in animals and humans. In addition to brucellosis , he began researching botulism from 1919 , which was a major problem for the Californian food industry in the 1920s. An institute founded on the initiative of Meyer was headed by him from 1926 to 1930 and there he developed quality assurance procedures for the can industry. In the 1930s, he investigated a form of meningitis in horses caused by arboviruses and transmitted to horses and humans via mosquitoes. Meyer - who had been dealing with the disease since 1914 - found the routes of transmission (so that combating the vector mosquitoes turned out to be the most effective countermeasure), isolated the virus, and developed a vaccine for horses. Meyer also extensively studied the plague and the ecological conditions under which epidemics occur. He developed a vaccine for the US Army, which was successfully used in Vietnam . He researched the epidemiology of California Valley Fever ( coccidioidomycosis ), leptospirosis ( coccidioidomycosis ) caused by airborne fungal spores (where he found that about half of the dogs in San Francisco who could transmit the pathogen to humans through drinking water were infected at the time) , Parrot disease (where he isolated the pathogen that belonged to the chlamydia ), which he contained in California through nationwide testing and regulation of parrot trade and quarantine, and paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP), where he developed testing procedures and initiated seasonal fishing bans in California. After investigating a case in which a cook at a church event infected more than 100 people with typhoid fever through a spaghetti cake (and had infected others in previous years), he turned to public health issues. In particular, he propagated the concept of latent infection, in which the carrier does not become ill himself, but passes the disease on. He also did research on anthrax, yellow fever, the 1918 flu pandemic, hepatitis, and malaria.
Meyer published over 800 scientific articles and book chapters and was also active in public health issues. In 1940/1941 he was President of the American Association of Immunologists .
Prices and memberships
He received the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research in 1951 and the Gairdner Foundation International Award in 1960, and the Jessie Stevenson Kovalenko Medal in 1961 . He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences . In 1935 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences .
He was married twice; in first marriage since 1913 with Mary Elizabeth Lindsay, with whom he had a daughter, in second marriage since 1960 with Marion Grace Lewis. In 1922 he became a US citizen.
literature
- Urs Gessner: Meyer, Karl Friedrich. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Meyer, Karl Friedrich |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American veterinarian |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 19, 1884 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Basel |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 27, 1974 |
| Place of death | San Francisco |