Wilhelm Bernhard

Wilhelm Bernhard (born November 8, 1920 in Worb ; † October 9, 1978 in Buenos Aires ) was a Swiss pathologist . He is known for his discoveries during the early use of the electron microscope in the 1950s at the Cancer Research Center in Villejuif near Paris.

Life

Wilhelm Bernhard was the son of a farmer and grew up in Worb. As a teenager he became interested in astronomy and built his own telescopes. Bernhard studied medicine at the Universities of Bern and Geneva and, after completing his doctorate in 1946, served as a doctor in the Swiss Army for a year . In 1947 he went to Paris, where he continued his pathology training with Charles Oberling . Through his mediation, he became the head of the newly established electron microscopy laboratory in Villejuif at the Institut de Recherche Scientifique sur le Cancer (Cancer Research Institute). In the 1950s, the laboratory was a center for research into the interior of cells using electron microscopy. Bernhard developed and perfected many new techniques (staining techniques, cryo- ultra microtomy , autoradiography with an electron microscope, immunocytochemistry). He was initially Attaché de recherches at the Center national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), from 1953 Chargé des recherches , from 1956 Maître des recherches and from 1961 Directeur des recherches . From 1965 Bernhard was president of the Société française de Microscopie électronique and from 1968 a board member of the International Society for Cell Biology . Bernhard died unexpectedly in Buenos Aires on the trip to a scientific conference in Mendoza , Argentina.

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Bernhard and his colleagues devoted themselves in particular to researching the structures in the cell nucleus . Another focus was the effect of cancer viruses in cells, an interest that he shared with his teacher Oberling, who at that time represented the development of cancer as a result of viruses. Bernhard first examined the Rous sarcoma virus and then other cancer viruses in mammals such as those with shope fibroma , breast cancer and leukemia in mice, polyomaviruses , SV 40 and adenoviruses using an electron microscope . He was responsible for classifying the oncoviruses in mice into types A, B and C. With regard to changes in human leukemia cells, he found, after years of comparative studies, that no changes in the cell ultrastructures were detectable.

Honors

In 1967 he received the Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize . In 1962 he received honorary doctorates from the University of Basel and the University of Brussels . In 1975 he received the Schleiden Medal of the Leopoldina , of which he was a member. In 1957 he received the Prix Louis Darracq of the French Academy of Sciences , 1960 the Prix Lauréat du Concours of the Swiss Cancer League , 1972 the Howard Taylor Ricketts Award of the University of Chicago and in 1964 the great science award of the city of Paris. In 1978 he was posthumously awarded the Prix Lacassagne of the Ligue Nationale Francaise contre le Cancer. In 1973 he became Chevalier de l'Ordre national du Mérite .

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• Elizabeth Leduc, Etienne de Harven: Obituary in: Cancer Research. Volume 39, 1979, p. 2811.
• Thomas Fuchs: Bernhard, Wilhelm. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland. 2002, biography D42874