Simon Flexner

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Simon Flexner

Simon Flexner (born March 25, 1863 in Louiseville , Kentucky , † May 2, 1946 in New York City ) was an American medic .

As a professor of pathology , he taught from 1899 to 1903 at the University of Pennsylvania . From 1901, in addition to teaching, he took over the management of the newly established Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research and later sat on the board of directors of the Rockefeller Foundation .

During the severe polio epidemics at the beginning of the 20th century, his contemporaries regarded him as the scientist who could significantly advance polio research. In 1909 Karl Landsteiner and Erwin Popper succeeded in infecting monkeys with the poliomyelitis virus, and they described a neurotropic, filterable virus . Simon Flexner confirmed their findings. Flexner also managed to transfer the infection from one monkey to the next. This made it possible to study the disease on laboratory animals. For his studies, however , Simon Flexner used rhesus monkeys , which are one of the few primate species that do not ingest the virus by mouth. While Simon Flexner made significant advances in theMeningitis treatment, his results turned research into polio diseases on the wrong track over a long period of time.

Since 1901 Flexner was an elected member of the American Philosophical Society . In 1908 he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences and in 1911 to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . In 1912, Princeton University awarded Flexner an honorary doctorate . In 1919 he was admitted to the Royal Society as a foreign member . In 1927 he was elected a member of the Leopoldina . Since 1931 he was a corresponding and since 1937 associated member ( associé étranger ) of the Académie des sciences . In 1928 he gave the George M. Kober Lecture .

Simon Flexner was the brother of Abraham Flexner .

literature

  • David M. Oshinsky: Polio: An American Story . Oxford University Press, USA, 2005, ISBN 0-19-530714-3 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Member History: Simon Flexner. American Philosophical Society, accessed August 8, 2018 .
  2. ^ The Princeton Alumni Weekly, Vol. XIII, p. 698
  3. ^ Entry on Flexner, Simon (1863 - 1946) in the archives of the Royal Society , London
  4. ^ List of members since 1666: Letter F. Académie des sciences, accessed on November 13, 2019 (French).
personal data
SURNAME Flexner, Simon
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American medic
DATE OF BIRTH March 25, 1863
PLACE OF BIRTH Louiseville , Kentucky
DATE OF DEATH May 2, 1946
Place of death New York City