Robert Feulgen

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Joachim Wilhelm Robert Feulgen (born September 2, 1884 in Werden an der Ruhr, today Essen-Werden; † October 24, 1955 in Gießen ) was a German physician and university professor. He was a pioneer in the study of nucleic acids .

Life

The son of a factory owner visited in food and Soest the school and made 1905 the Abitur . He then studied at the Albert-Ludwigs-University in Freiburg and at the Christian Albrechts University in Kiel medicine and made 1910 his state exam . He also did the internship in Kiel. In 1912 he received his doctorate in medicine in Kiel, with a dissertation on the purine metabolism at the Physiological Institute of the University of Kiel (under the direction of Felix Adolf Hoppe-Seyler ). Then he was at the Physiological Institute of the University of Berlin (under the director Max Rubner and his department head for chemistry Hermann Steudel ). There his work on nucleic acids began. During the First World War he was a military doctor and in 1919 went to the Physiological Institute of the Justus Liebig University in Giessen as an assistant to Karl Bürker , who wanted to expand physiological chemistry . In 1919 he completed his habilitation in Giessen and gave his first lectures. In 1923 he became an associate professor and in 1928 a full professor (personal professor) for physiological chemistry and director of the newly founded physiological-chemical institute. In 1930 he was dean of the medical faculty. In 1951 he became a full professor and in 1953 he retired.

He dealt with physiological chemistry and histochemistry and developed, among other things, a detection reaction for deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), the so-called Feulgen reaction . He thus proved that DNA is not only found in animal, but also in plant cell nuclei. At the beginning of the 20th century, a distinction was made between animal and plant nucleic acid with yeast nucleic acid in plants as the prototype and thymonucleic acid in animals. They differ in that one (thymonucleic acid) contains thymine, the other does not (corresponding to the RNA in today's perspective, which contains uracil instead of thymine). In addition, it was assumed at the time that the sugar building block in yeast nucleic acid is a pentose, and in thymonucleic acid a hexose. Feulgen refuted the latter in his time in Berlin before the First World War (the correct identification of the sugar was done in 1929 by Phoebus Levene ). In 1923, after developing his detection reaction for DNA, he proved that thymonucleic acid (now called DNA) occurs in both animal and plant cell nuclei and that the separation into plant and animal nucleic acids was wrong. The DNA was found in the cell nucleus; Feulgen found the yeast nucleic acid (RNA) in the cytoplasm of the cell.

He also discovered the plasmalogens in the cytoplasm (from 1924). He proved that it is a lipid and characterized it with T. Bersin in 1939 as acetal phosphatide (he wrongly assumed that there was an acetal- like bond, later this was instead recognized as an enol ether bond and the name acetal phosphatide was given up). He thus laid the foundation for the study of alkenyl and alkyl ether lipids, a biologically widespread class of lipids.

In 1938 he was elected a member of the Leopoldina . In 1954 he received an honorary doctorate in Tübingen.

Feulgen was a passionate sailor.

Honors

Robert-Feulgen-Strasse in Essen-Werden is named after him. The "Feulgenstraße" in the clinic district in Gießen is also named after him.

literature

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personal data
SURNAME Feulgen, Robert
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Feulgen, Joachim Wilhelm Robert (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German physician and professor
DATE OF BIRTH September 2, 1884
PLACE OF BIRTH Eat-becoming
DATE OF DEATH October 24, 1955
Place of death to water