Keith Vickerman

Keith Vickerman (born March 21, 1933 in Huddersfield , West Yorkshire , † June 28, 2016 ) was a British zoologist specializing in parasitology .

Life

Vickerman was born in Huddersfield. He attended King James's Grammar School where he became aware of Paul de Kruif's "microbe hunter " through a teacher . The book intrigued him and he developed a lifelong interest in biology . In 1952, Vickerman enrolled at University College London (UCL) as a zoologist, focusing his final year on parasitology. There he saw, by his own admission, through a microscope for the first time a trypanosomatid swimming between red blood cells . The parasite and the life cycle between human and animal hosts and the tsetse fly fascinated him so much that he wanted to investigate further. His mentor at the university during this time was Peter Brian Medawar .

Vickerman graduated summa cum laude and was therefore exempt from the National Service . He moved to the University of Exeter , where he studied parasites of soil insects , funded by the Agricultural and Food Research Council . He received his PhD from Exeter . After a short time at the University of Edinburgh , he took on Medawar's 1958 lectures at UCL. It was here that he began his pioneering research on trypanosomatids.

On a Royal Society research grant , Vickerman traveled to Tororo , Uganda , where he did research at the East African Trypanosomiasis Research Institute during the final days of the British Empire . Further research led him to the Nigerian Institute of Trypanosomiasis Research in Nigeria Jos . He realized that the drugs for African sleeping sickness contained arsenic and could kill patients faster than curing the disease. On top of that, the parasites quickly developed resistance to the drug, so higher doses were required.

Vickerman became one of the world's leading experts on sleeping sickness, African trypanosomiasis . He investigated the process by which the parasites adapt from the environment of the vector , the tsetse fly, to the completely different environment of the host, human or animal, and vice versa. He was able to determine that the parasite was preparing for this transition through a preliminary adaptation, a finding that was later confirmed for other insect-borne protozoa . Ronald Ross , who discovered the transmission of malaria , another disease caused by protozoa, had already discovered that the parasites appeared in waves in the patient's blood, but were never completely eliminated at the same time. During his microscopic examinations, Vickerman noticed an unclear shell around the parasites, which other researchers had previously dismissed as unimportant. It was this shell that made the parasite recognizable to the immune system . Vickerman was able to show that the parasite rejects this shell at different times and is then no longer recognized by the immune system. This allows the parasite to multiply again largely unhindered until the immune system has adjusted to the new protein shell. This process could be repeated several times, until the patient finally died in one of the waves observed by Ross.

Vickerman derived from his knowledge that a vaccine against trypanosomatida, the parasitic pathogen of leishmaniasis , Chagas disease and African trypanosomiasis, cannot be developed because the parasite protects itself from immune reactions of its hosts by changing the protein surface ( antigenic variation ) . This insight brought Vickerman world fame and opened up new avenues for the treatment of parasitic diseases.

In 1968 Vickerman went to the University of Glasgow as an honorary professor in the Division of Environmental and Evolutionary Biology . From 1974 he taught as adjunct professor until he was appointed to the John Graham Kerr Chair of Zoology in 1979. He left this chair in 1984 to take over the Regius Chair of Zoology from his predecessor David Richmond Newth . He was considered a remarkably good and patient teacher who enjoyed great popularity among his students. His time was filled with teaching and he was constantly inventing new courses to keep his students happy. He retained the Regius Professorship until his retirement in 1998. The professorship was then vacant until 2013, when Pat Monaghan was appointed as the first female professor.

One of the last projects Vickerman took up before his retirement was fighting a parasite that threatened Scotland's most important fishery product, the Norwegian lobster . He was able to identify the parasite, but left its control to his successors.

Vickerman's enthusiasm for nature was evident in his enthusiasm for allotment gardening , which made him a political activist in 2001 who, together with his wife Moira, made the public aware that, in order to preserve biodiversity in Scotland, the corridors of allotment gardens in Glasgow Access had to be secured by real estate speculators. His efforts were successful and the allotment garden colonies in Glasgow continued to exist.

Vickerman died in 2016 of complications from pancreatic cancer .

Honors

In 1970 Vickerman was appointed a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh , in 1984 a Fellow of the Royal Society and in 1998 a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences . In 1994 he was honored with the Leeuwenhoek Medal of the Royal Society. In 1996, Vickerman was awarded the Linnaeus Medal .

Fonts (selection)

Books

1967, The protozoa . London: John Murray; (with FEG Cox)

items

1978, Antigenic heterogeneity of metacyclic forms of Trypanosoma brucei ; Nature. 273: 300-02 (with Le Ray, Dominique and J. David Barry)
1978, Antigenic variation in trypanosomes ; Nature. 273: 613-17

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f unknown: Keith Vickerman. University of Glasgow Story. In: University of Glasgow website. June 29, 2016, accessed December 25, 2018 .
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p ^q ^r ^s ^t ^u ^v ^w ^x unknown: Professor Keith Vickerman, zoologist and expert in parasitic protozoa - obituary. In: The Telegraph. June 26, 2016, accessed December 25, 2018 .
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p ^q ^r ^s ^t ^u ^v ^w ^x ^y ^z ^aa Obituary: Keith Vickerman, zoologist. July 21, 2016, accessed December 25, 2018 .
↑ unknown: Preventing disease in Africa. Typanosomes are protozoan parasites which cause trypanosomiasis in man and animal, a disease transmitted by tsetse flies which prevents cattle being kept in over 10 million square kilometers of Africa. In: University of Glasgow website. Accessed December 25, 2018 .

personal data
SURNAME	Vickerman, Keith
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Vickerman, K.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	British zoologist and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH	March 21, 1933
PLACE OF BIRTH	Huddersfield , West Yorkshire
DATE OF DEATH	June 28, 2016

[UoGVickerman-1] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f unknown: Keith Vickerman. University of Glasgow Story. In: University of Glasgow website. June 29, 2016, accessed December 25, 2018 .

[Telegraph2016-06-26-2] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p ^q ^r ^s ^t ^u ^v ^w ^x unknown: Professor Keith Vickerman, zoologist and expert in parasitic protozoa - obituary. In: The Telegraph. June 26, 2016, accessed December 25, 2018 .

[ScotsmanVickerman-3] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p ^q ^r ^s ^t ^u ^v ^w ^x ^y ^z ^aa Obituary: Keith Vickerman, zoologist. July 21, 2016, accessed December 25, 2018 .

[UoGPreventing-4] unknown: Preventing disease in Africa. Typanosomes are protozoan parasites which cause trypanosomiasis in man and animal, a disease transmitted by tsetse flies which prevents cattle being kept in over 10 million square kilometers of Africa. In: University of Glasgow website. Accessed December 25, 2018 .