Marius Nasta

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Marius Nasta (1959)

Marius Nasta (born December 4, 1890 in Bucharest , † April 6, 1965 ibid) was a Romanian doctor and scientist who is known for his research in the field of tuberculosis . He was a member of the Romanian Academy and President of the Union of the Society of Medical Sciences.

Life

childhood

Marius Nasta was born in December 1890 as the third of four children. His father, Alexandru Nasta, a motorway engineer, was a member of the Aromanians and his mother, Irina Nasta (née Constantinidis) comes from a Greek family who were linguists , writers and diplomats . After the early death of his father in 1895, the family faced hard times and Irina was forced to take piano lessons so that she could raise money for the family and teach their children. His mother's strict upbringing, her modesty and hard work shaped him throughout life. After attending an elementary school from 1896 to 1900, he entered the Gheorghe Lazar High School in Bucharest, which he graduated in 1908. In the same year he enrolled as a medical student at the Carol Davila Medical and Pharmaceutical University .

Education

At the medical faculty he was taught by Ioan Cantacuzino, Arut and bacteriologist (1863-1934). Cantacuzino was a major influence on Nasta's early professional career and personal life. Cantacuzino combined outstanding teaching with a passion for rigorous scientific research, great clinical experience, and broader interests, including baroque music by French composers . Inspired by the Russian zoologist and immunologist Ilja Iljitsch Metschnikow , the courses under Cantacuzino explored new areas of experimental medicine and, from 1901, offered students, including Nasta, the opportunity to conduct cutting-edge scientific research such as pathology and bacteriology. The laboratory for antistreptolysin O followed as early as 1904 and in 1906 a laboratory for dysentery as well as other laboratories for the development of other vaccines to combat diseases such as cholera or typhoid .

By integrating the teams led by Cantacuzino, Nasta joined a group that has left a mark in the Romanian scientific and medical world that continues to this day. Previous members included: Alexandru Slatineanu, bacteriologist (1873-1939), Stefan Irimescu, doctor (1871-1956), and Mihai Ciuca, bacteriologist and parasitologist (1883-1969).

Early career

During his medical studies, Nasta worked as a doctor in the Eforia Spitalelor Civile hospital between 1911 and 1913 and as a medical intern in the Brâncoveanu hospital between 1913 and 1918 . His internship was interrupted by the Second Balkan War. After graduating from the Medical Faculty in 1918, he studied at the Pasteur Institute until 1920 . After his return from the war in 1921, he took a position as an assistant researcher at the Institute for Serum and Vaccines . The institute was renamed the Cantacuzino Institute in the same year . He combined scientific research in areas such as microbiology , experimental pathology , epidemiology and hygiene with the production of vaccines to protect against a variety of human diseases such as intestinal infection, polio , diphtheria , tetanus , typhoid and malaria . In 1936, Nasta was appointed head of the institute's tuberculosis department. That same year, Nasta spent a few months in Paris to work at the Laënnec Hospital and in Albert Calmette 's laboratory. In 1927 allowed him a scholarship of the Rockefeller Foundation in the United States to travel and visit there several treatment centers, such as the center of the Sarranc Lake used to treat tuberculosis. Between 1928 and 1934, Nasta carried out research at the institute and practiced as a doctor at Casa Asigurarilor Sociale , an institute that specializes in lung diseases .

Academic career

The academic career of Nasta started in 1927, when he was appointed as a lecturer at the Medical Faculty of Cantacuzino. In 1930 he was appointed to the Chair of Phthisiology, the treatment and care of tuberculosis- infected lungs. Nasta was appointed professor of the faculty in 1946.

Nasta taught in Romania, but also internationally. He has been a speaker on several occasions at meetings of tuberculosis researchers financed and organized by the Organization Against Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases in Western and Eastern Europe . In the 1950s he was a speaker at universities in the People's Republic of China several times .

Researches

The research, which was carried out either by Nasta alone or in groups, covered the most important areas of phthisiology (phthisiology = research on tuberculosis), bacteriology, immunology and the pathophysiology of respiratory diseases . In the area of ​​tuberculosis, his research focused on the immunology of diseases such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis and the development of new vaccines, including Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG). His research also went in the direction of the detection, chemotherapy and pathology of pulmonary tuberculosis. Nasta's research on experimental chemoprophylaxis and immunoprophylaxis for tuberculosis was powerful. This enabled the introduction of specific and practical methods for the prevention of the disease across Romania. He also conducted research on bronchitis in various living and working environments of the population and formed a link between diseases in the areas.

military service

Marius Nasta was involved in combat operations as a soldier in the Balkan War of 1913, World War I in 1916, and in the post-war period in 1919 and World War II . At the end of the Balkan War in the summer of 1913, thousands of Romanian combatants died as a result of a cholera epidemic that suddenly broke out. Romanian doctor Victor Babeș and Cantacuzino were instructed by the Romanian government to take immediate action to prevent the cholera epidemic from spreading to the rest of the Romanian troops. Cantacuzino and his employees Constantin Ionescu-Mihăeşti (1883–1962), Mihai Ciucă (1883–1969) and Alexandru Slătineanu (1873–1939) were instrumental in building civil hospitals and military hospitals that were used to treat patients and the entire IV. Romanian Army Corps. Nasta served as the first sergeant as a doctor in the plague house in Zimnicea . With his young employees he saved the lives of many patients and therefore he and his colleagues received several military orders and medals.

During the First World War, the Cantacuzino laboratory was converted into barracks for the Romanian army. Cantacuzino's associates, including Nasta, developed vaccines for cholera, typhus, and tuberculosis, which were distributed to the Romanian army, Russian army and Allied armies.

In the immediate post-war period of World War I, Cantacuzino, who is now head of the Romanian Red Cross , was tasked by the French government with rescuing members of the Romanian army unit who had been deployed in Puglia and who were infected with cholera. Of the army unit, 600 of its members have already died. Cantacuzino sent Nasta and other colleagues to the Italian region to rescue the army unit. The intervention was successful and Nasta also received awards, including the Legion of Honor .

During the Second World War, Nasta was enrolled as a major in the Romanian army as a medical assistant between 1941 and 1944 . In Bucharest, he helped the population in the first aid team in the National Socialists' air raids .

Persecution by the communist regime and death

Given the success of the national program to combat tuberculosis, the communist regime tried to present Nasta's tuberculosis research outside of Romania and allowed him to give lectures abroad. Nasta was not very obedient, however: some of the most influential scientists in the Eastern bloc, including Trofim Denisovich Lyssenko, criticized the abusive influence of the regime on Mendelian genetics for his pseudoscientific ideas. Nasta also came into conflict with Voinea Marinescu , the Soviet Minister of Health, when he called for new methods of tuberculosis detection to be introduced instead of screening with outdated X-ray machines .

Although Nasta was initially supported by the regime, he was viewed with suspicion because, unlike many colleagues, he did not join the Communist Party . At the end of the 1950s, the Stalinist ruler of Romania felt increasingly threatened by the changes in leadership in the Soviet Union and by possible internal unrest after the Hungarian uprising . In 1958, during a wave of reprisals, the Romanian Ministry of State Security also suspected Nasta of spying for the British Secret Intelligence Service . In 1959, Nasta and his wife Lucia Bǎicoianu were exposed at a public show trial . They were charged with “making hideous remarks against the people's democratic regime and against socialism, listening to imperialist radio stations and spreading rumors and insults against the foreign policy of the Soviet Union”. Nasta had to quit his research. In 1963 he got cancer and died in Bucharest in April 1965.

Aftermath and legacy

A commemorative medal issued to mark the centenary of his birthday

In 1965, the year of Nasta's death, Romanian tuberculosis research was among the most respected in the world. The focus was on Nasta's Institute, the Institutul de Pneumologie Marius Nasta . Thousands of doctors were trained there over decades, who then worked in the country's major hospitals, including Cluj-Napoca , Iași , Târgu Mureș and Timișoara .

Another important contribution made by Nasta was the establishment of the Phthisiology Section of the Society of Medical Sciences in 1951, now the Romanian Medical Society .

The end of communism in Romania in 1989 made it possible to honor Nasta as the founder of modern Romanian phthisiology. In 1990, on the occasion of his centenary, the Bucharest Institute for Bronchial Medicine was renamed the Marius Nasta Institute for Pneumology . Today the institute is a hospital, teaching and research center in the field of lung diseases, which also includes the pulmonology clinic of the Carol Davila Medical and Pharmaceutical University. Staff at the institute include Constantin Anastasatu, Miron Bogdan and Stefan Rujinski.

Awards

For his research and military service, Nasta has received numerous awards, the most important of which are listed:

Publications

Nasta's research has been published in over 300 scientific articles nationally and internationally.

Monographic studies

  • The chemotherapy of tuberculosis (1952)
  • Morphopathology of tuberculosis
  • Treaty on Tuberculosis (1957/58)
  • Bronchopulmonary Tumors (1961)

Biographical Studies

Academic courses

  • Tuberculosis in an industrial environment (1931)
  • Tuberculosis in the Rural Environment (1940)
  • Phthisiology course (1945)
  • Phthisiology Handbook (1947)
  • The fight against tuberculosis in Romania (1958)

Web links

Commons : Marius Nasta  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Origin of the family, in the Romanian biography of known families Cu gandul la lumea de altadata in the chapter "The Genealogy of Marius Nasta" on p. 259, Mihai Sorin Radulescu, Albatros press, Bucharest 2005, ISBN 973-24-1077-9 .
  2. ↑ "The Personality of Marius Nasta", Prof. Dr. Constantin Anastasatu, RD Shelden Enterprises, Inc. 1990, ISBN 1-883300-07-X .
  3. ↑ canatcuzino.ro ( Memento of the original from October 20, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved November 3, 2016. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / cantacuzino.ro
  4. ↑ Nasta visited and worked on his travels across the United States at various centers kindly given to us by Ion Nasta, the grandson of Nasta.
  5. ↑ Marius Nasta - centenary of his birth - recording of the lectures during the memorial event at the Marius Nasta Institute for Pneumophthisiology in Bonum certamen , RD Shleden Enterprices, Inc. 1990, ISBN 1-883300-07-X .
  6. ↑ Anatomia Mistificarii , Stelian Tanase, Humanitas 2003, pp. 170-179.
  7. ↑ Ana and Sebastian Pele under the direction of Professor Dr. Florin Mihaltan: Scurta introspectie in trecutul pneumologiei romanesti , Romanian Society of Pneumology, Bucharest 2009, ISBN 978-973-0-06591-6 .
  8. ↑ Marius Nasta - Centenary of Birth - Recording of the lectures held during the memorial session at the Marius Nasta Institute for Pneumophthisiology . RD Shelden Enterprises, 1990, ISBN 1-883300-07-X , p. 31 and 126 .
personal data
SURNAME Nasta, Marius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Romanian medic
DATE OF BIRTH 4th December 1890
PLACE OF BIRTH Bucharest , Romania
DATE OF DEATH April 6, 1965
Place of death Bucharest , Romania