Oleh Hornykiewicz

From left: Georg Hertting , Hans Klupp, Oleh Hornykiewicz and Walter Kobinger (1985)

Oleh Hornykiewicz (born November 17, 1926 in Sychów , Poland , today Lviv , Ukraine , † May 26, 2020 in Vienna ) was an Austrian pharmacologist . He is considered a pioneer in research into Parkinson's disease and the role of dopamine . He has been nominated for the Nobel Prize several times.

Life

Hornykiewicz studied in Vienna after the Second World War. From 1964 he was a lecturer at the Pharmacological Institute of the University of Vienna. From 1968 to 1976 he was a professor in the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Toronto . From 1976/1977 he was a full professor at the University of Vienna ( retirement 1995) and head of the Institute for Biochemical Pharmacology at this university (until 1999). As emeritus he was assigned to the Medical University of Vienna , Center for Brain Research, since 2004 . His research also took him to the University of Saskatchewan in Canada . Hornykiewicz died in May 2020 at the age of 93 in Vienna.

Scientific life

Herbert Ehringer and Oleh Hornykiewicz were the first to determine the reduced dopamine content in the basal ganglia of the brain stem in deceased Parkinson's patients. Walter Birkmayer , then head of the neurological department at Lainz Hospital, and Oleh Hornykiewicz then treated 20 Viennese patients intravenously with L-Dopa for the first time . On November 10, 1961, they published their results in the Wiener Klinische Wochenschrift :

“In short, the effect of a single intravenous administration of L-DOPA in Parkinson's syndrome consisted primarily in the complete elimination or substantial reduction of the akinesia (immobility). Patients who could not sit up from lying down, who could not get up from sitting, who could not start walking from standing, easily achieved these benefits after L-DOPA administration. They walked with normal movements, could even run and jump [...] This DOPA effect lasted for about three hours at full strength and then gradually disappeared mostly within 24 hours. It could be reproduced as often [...] as desired. Rigor (rigidity) and tremor (trembling) were not significantly influenced by a single dose according to our previous experience. "

When in 2000 the Swedish pharmacologist Arvid Carlsson , who had also worked on the elucidation of the role of dopamine as a neurotransmitter , together with Eric Kandel and Paul Greengard received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for the discoveries relating to signal transmission in the nervous system " the decision of the Nobel Committee protest. Oleh Hornykiewicz, still active professor emeritus at the Institute for Brain Research in Vienna, had already been nominated for the Nobel Prize several times - mostly together with the awardee Arvid Carlsson from the University of Gothenburg. Both Carlsson and Hornykiewicz worked independently in the 1950s. Avid Carlsson found in the laboratory that the lack of dopamine in rabbits and mice triggers Parkinson's symptoms. However, it was the Viennese group around Oleh Hornykiewicz who carried out the essential research on the human brain that was decisive for the development of the drugs. The initiator of the protest was Ali Rajput , a neurologist at the University of Saskatchewan ; he was able to win the support of around 230 colleagues.

Awards and memberships

• 1971 member of the Leopoldina
• 1972 Gairdner Foundation International Award
• 1979 Wolf Prize in Medicine
• 1993 Ludwig Wittgenstein Prize from the Austrian Research Association
• 1994 Schmiedeberg plaque from the German Society for Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology
• 2001 Billroth Medal
• 2008 Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Art, 1st class
• 2010 Austrian Decoration of Honor for Science and Art
• 2014 Warren Alpert Foundation Prize
• 2016 Gold Medal for Services to the State of Vienna

literature

• Elisabeth Schneyder: Nobel Prizes are like a lottery. In: profile know, No. 2/2013, June 2013, pp. 32–38.

Web links

• Oleh Hornykiewicz. In: oefg.at . 1993, archived from the original on October 13, 2006 . 
• Oleh Hornykiewicz: The History of Neuroscience in Autobiography. (pdf; 2.9 MB) Volume 4. Ed. by Larry R. Squire. The Society for Neuroscience. Elsevier, 2004, pp. 240-281 (English, ISBN 0-12-660246-8 ). 
• Juliane Nagiller: “I have always met the brain with awe”: a portrait of the pharmacologist Oleh Hornykiewicz. In: Ö1 dimensions . February 14, 2018 (download no longer available). 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Oleh Hornykiewicz died at the age of 93. In: ORF.at . May 27, 2020, accessed May 27, 2020 . 
2. ↑ Hornykiewicz: “I'm entitled to the Nobel Prize”. In: ORF ON Science . January 1, 2010, accessed May 28, 2020 . 
3. ↑ Member entry of Oleh Hornykiewicz at the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina , accessed on July 15, 2016.
4. ↑ Ludwig Wittgenstein Prize of ÖFG. In: oefg.at . Archived from the original on July 6, 2011 ; accessed on May 28, 2020 . 
5. ↑ Warren Alpert Foundation Prize: 2014 Recipient: Oleh Hornykiewicz. Warren Alpert Foundation, accessed May 28, 2020 . 2014 Warren Alpert Foundation Prize Recognizes Leaders in Brain Research. Warren Alpert Foundation, June 10, 2014, archived from the original June 11, 2014 ; accessed on May 28, 2020 (English). 
    
6. ↑ Vienna Decoration of Honor for Pharmacologist Oleh Hornykiewicz. In: APA.at . June 8, 2016, archived from the original on June 8, 2016 ; accessed on June 8, 2016 .