Kurt Repke
Kurt Robert Hermann Repke (born June 7, 1919 in Friesack ; † January 10, 2001 in Berlin ) was a German biochemist and pharmacologist . From 1955 to 1984 he worked at various biomedical research institutes of the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin, which later became the Academy of Sciences of the GDR , including from 1964 to 1971 as director of the Institute for Biochemistry in Berlin-Buch and from 1971 to 1984 as head of its section Successor institution, the Central Institute for Molecular Biology . With his work he made fundamental contributions to the elucidation of biotransformation , pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of cardiac glycosides .
Life
Kurt Repke was born in Friesack in 1919 as the son of a master baker and, after attending primary school in his home town , graduated from the secondary school in Nauen , where he graduated from high school in 1938. He then studied medicine at the universities of Jena , Greifswald and Rostock , and received his doctorate in Greifswald in 1945 with a biochemical thesis on cholinesterase . Until 1950 he trained in Hamburg , Potsdam and with Gerhardt Katsch at the Medical University Clinic Greifswald to become a specialist in internal medicine . In the same year he switched to the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Greifswald as an assistant, where he served as senior assistant from 1952 and received his habilitation in 1953 under Paul Wels .
Two years later Kurt Repke went to the Institute for Medicine and Biology of the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin-Buch , where he worked under Karl Lohmann . Here he was appointed professor in 1958, and from 1959 he headed his own department for steroid research. After the Institute for Medicine and Biology had been divided into several independent institutes in October 1961, he followed Karl Lohmann as director of the Academy Institute for Biochemistry in 1964 . In this position he worked until 1971. When the institute was merged with other institutes to form the Central Institute for Molecular Biology (ZIM) at the beginning of 1972, he took over the management of the Biomembranes division at ZIM until his retirement in 1984. He died in Berlin in 2001 .
Scientific work
The focus of Kurt Repke's research during his time in Greifswald was radiation biology and, in collaboration with Fritz Markwardt, the investigation of steroid hormones , especially estrogens . After continuing to devote himself to steroid research in Berlin-Buch, he later turned to cardiac glycosides . He published a series of fundamental works on analysis and biotransformation as well as on pharmacokinetics , structure-activity relationships and pharmacodynamics of these active ingredients, of which in particular his research results on their mechanism of action , which he obtained in collaboration with Albert Wollenberger , shape the state of the relevant textbook knowledge up to the present day.
Awards
Kurt Repke was accepted into the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina in 1961 and received the GDR National Prize in 1973 . In addition, the Cardiac Muscle Society made him an honorary member.
literature
- Benno Parthier : Laudation of the Leopoldina on the completion of the 80th year of life of Kurt Repke on June 7, 1999. In: Jahrbuch 2000. 46th year. Published by the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina, Halle / Saale 2000, pp. 112–114, ISSN 0949-2364
- Klaus Starke: It can trace our earth floors - On Pharmacologists and Pharmacology. In: Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's Archives of Pharmacology . 380 (5) / 2009. Springer-Verlag, pp. 465–471, ISSN 0028-1298 (for Kurt Repke see p. 466/467)
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Repke, Kurt |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Repke, Kurt Robert Hermann (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German biochemist and pharmacologist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 7, 1919 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Friesack |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 10, 2001 |
| Place of death | Berlin |