Ernst Knobil

Ernst Knobil (born 20 September 1926 in Berlin, † April 13, 2000 in Houston ) was a German -American physiologist and endocrinologist, who was in his lifetime as one of the leading Neuroendokrinologen. He worked from 1961 to 1981 at the University of Pittsburgh and then to 1997 at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, and has been dealing with the hormonal regulation of growth and reproduction. In recognition of his research, which among other things, improved the treatment of female infertility, prostate cancer and certain forms of short stature, he was inducted into the National Academy of Sciences, among others, in 1986 and in 1990 awarded the Dickson Prize in Medicine.

Life

Ernst Knobil, was born in Berlin in 1926 as the son of an Austrian father and a German mother, both of Jewish descent. At the age of six, he emigrated with his family first to Paris and Genoa in 1940, the United States. At the New York State College of Agriculture, a College of Cornell University, he began at the age of 15 years studying zoology, from which he graduated with an interruption as a result of military service in 1948. Three years later he was also a PhD from Cornell University in Zoology.

He then attended from 1951 to 1953 to stay as a postdoc at Harvard University, where he then worked as an assistant professor and lecturer from 1957. In 1961 he became professor of physiology and founding director of the department of physiology at the University of Pittsburgh, where he worked until 1981. In the same year he moved to the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, where he served as dean until 1984 and from then until 1997, he became a laboratory for Neuroendocrinology.

Ernst Knobil was twice married and the father of two sons from his first, and by a son and a daughter from his second marriage. He died in 2000 in Houston due to a pancreatic tumor.

Scientific work

Ernst Knobil, who published 217 scientific publications, devoted himself in his career, especially the physiology of growth and reproduction. He has been dealing with the effects of somatotropin, with the influence of estrogen on the menstrual cycle and the role of the hormone produced in the hypothalamus, GnRH (GnRH ).

One of his most important discoveries was the observation that rhythmically emitted GnRH production of luteinising hormone ( LH) stimulates, while the continuous administration of GnRH reduces the secretion of LH by the anterior pituitary, which he established the rhythmic secretion as an important mechanism of hormonal control. He also described the species specificity as the reason for the ineffectiveness of animal growth hormones in humans after previously impurities of hormones derived from animal organs had been accepted as the cause.

His research contributed among other things to a deeper understanding of the menstrual cycle as well as to better treatment options for female reproductive disorders, prostate cancer and certain forms of short stature. In the years 1979/1980 he served as president of the American Physiological Society.

Awards

Ernst Knobil was a member since 1981 of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and in 1986 the National Academy of Sciences and was also a foreign member of the French Academy of Sciences, the Italian Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei and the Belgian Royal Academy of Medicine. From the University of Bordeaux (1980 ), the Medical College of Wisconsin ( 1983), the University of Liège (1994) and the University of Milan each an honorary doctorate was conferred on him.

In addition, he received the 1990 Dickson Prize in Medicine and the highest awards of several American professional societies, including the 1982 Fred Conrad Koch Award of the Endocrine Society, 1983 Carl G. Hartman Award of the Society for the Study of Reproduction and the 1997 Walter B. Cannon Memorial Lecture of the American Physiological Society. Published in 1994 in his honor a Festschrift. At the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston is named after him with the Ernst Knobil Distinguished Lecture one has been held since 2001 lecture series.

Works (selection)

• The Pituitary Gland and Its Neuroendocrine Control. Series: Handbook of Physiology. Section 7 ( Endocrinology ), Volume 4 Washington, 1974 ( co-editor )
• The Physiology of Reproduction. Two volumes. New York, 1988, 1994; third edition: Knobil and Neill's Physiology of Reproduction. Amsterdam and Boston, 2006 ( co-author )
• Encyclopedia of Reproduction. Four volumes. San Diego 1998 ( co-editor )