William Küster

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William Küster (born September 22, 1863 in Leipzig , † March 5, 1929 in Stuttgart ) was a German chemist. He researched the interface between chemistry and medicine. He was the first to prove the physiologically important constitutional relationship between blood and bile pigments .

biography

William Küster came from a middle-class family . His father was the businessman Richard Küster (1823-1909), a great-grandson of Gottfried Winckler . His mother Ottilie Wigand (1828–1901) was a daughter of Otto Wigand . His son was the lawyer Otto Küster .

When the family moved to Berlin, he attended Wilhelms-Gymnasium . From 1882 Küster studied in Tübingen , Berlin and Leipzig first mathematics and natural science and later chemistry. In Berlin , he made a name for himself with the Landsmannschaft Guilelmia and remained a staunch corporation throughout his life. His teachers include August Wilhelm von Hofmann and Johannes Wislicenus . At the latter he was promoted to Dr. phil. PhD . He stayed as an assistant at Wislicenus in Leipzig until March 1890, and then worked as an assistant to Gustav von Hüfner at the physiological-chemical institute of the University of Tübingen. After studies on the oxidation of protein bodies, Hüfner directed his assistant to his own area of ​​work and entrusted him with the investigation of the blood pigment. The direction of work, which was shaped by Hüfner's research, was also decisive for Küster's scientific career. In 1896 he received his habilitation in Tübingen . In 1900 he was appointed associate professor . In 1903 Küster became professor of chemistry at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Stuttgart . Because of the teaching assignments he took on in pharmaceutical chemistry and pharmacognosy, he also had to familiarize himself with the subject matter for pharmacists. In 1913 Küster received an extraordinary chair for chemistry created especially for him at the Technical University of Stuttgart . In 1919 he was elected a member of the Leopoldina . In 1929, while preparing for an experimental lecture, William Küster suffered a heart attack.

Act

Until the end, Küster dealt with the blood pigment, its building blocks and metabolites, especially the porphyrins and bile pigments. With his research on the blood pigment component hematin, he provided new insights into the nature and function of this class of substances: in 1906 he proved the correctness of his structural formula for hematic acid. In 1914 he synthesized the latter, and in 1912 he also established a formula for the hemin that is still valid today. Hans Fischer was largely able to confirm this excellent achievement in 1928, given the complex hemin molecule. Selected chemical preparations by William Küster for research into blood pigment are kept in the collection of the Deutsches Museum .

PhD students

Numerous students continued Küster's research, including many chemists and pharmacists who received their doctorate with work on blood and bile pigments. Which includes:

Honors

In 1927 he was awarded the Dr. med. hc from the University of Bern .

Otto Mecheels was an admirer of his doctoral supervisor all his life. In his honor, a building in the Hohenstein Institute was named after him: William-Küster-Bau .

Publications

  • Contribution to the knowledge of quinoline acrylic acid and some derivatives thereof . Dissertation , Leipzig 1889.
  • Contributions to the knowledge of hematin . Habilitation thesis , Tübingen 1896.
  • Chemical and human from my life . Publisher of the Süddeutsche Apotheker-Zeitung, Stuttgart 1929.

literature

Web links

References and comments

  1. ↑ Today: Landsmannschschaft Brandenburg in the CC in Berlin
  2. ^ William Küster, in: Hoppe-Seylers Zeitschrift für Physiologische Chemie . No. 82, 1912, p. 463 ff.
  3. ↑ Blog of the Deutsches Museum, "Race for the blood pigment"
  4. ^ Roland Schmiedel (1888-1967): Contribution to the knowledge of bilirubin . Dissertation, Stuttgart 1912.
personal data
SURNAME Sexton, William
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kuester, William
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German chemist
DATE OF BIRTH September 22, 1863
PLACE OF BIRTH Leipzig
DATE OF DEATH March 5, 1929
Place of death Stuttgart