Ludwik Gross

Ludwik Gross ( born September 11, 1904 in Krakow, † July 19, 1999 in New York (NY ) ) was a Polish- American cancer researcher and virologist. He became known for his work on tumor viruses.

Life

Gross was born in Krakow in the former crown land Galicia the Austria -Hungarian Empire. He came from an upper middle-class assimilated Jewish family. His parents were both lawyers and his father was MP for Krakow in the Imperial Parliament, the Parliament of the Austrian half of the empire. Gross studied at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow Medicine and graduated with a doctorate degree in 1929 from. He served three years in Cracow on St. Lazarus Hospital and then went for a research stay for a few years (1932-1939, with interruptions) at the Institut Pasteur in Paris, where he specialized in cancer research. In 1940 he emigrated because of the increasing threat of Nazism in Europe to the United States and worked at the Hospital of Cincinnati, Ohio. 1943-1945 he served in the U.S. Army Medical Corps. After the Second World War, he became director of the Cancer Research Department at the Bronx Veterans Affairs (VA) Hospital in New York. His laboratory was first only of a single room. Gradually, he built it to a cancer research unit. 1957-1960 he was a visiting scientist at Memorial Sloan -Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. In 1971 he was appointed professor at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Gross died in 1999 at the age of 94 years from stomach cancer.

Scientific achievements

Scientific main topic was his life to cancer research and particularly the role of viruses in carcinogenesis. In 1951 United that leukemia is caused by a transmissible virus in mice, the murine leukemia virus ( MLV). Gross remained convinced that a part also of human cancers is caused by viruses. Because these viruses have long been not found, he saw face strong criticism. Only the Epstein- Barr virus in 1963 and the discovery of human retroviruses HTLV -1 and HTLV -2 from 1980 to 1982 did abate criticism.

Awards

Gross has received numerous awards for his work:

  • R. R. de Villiers Foundation ( Leukemia Society) Award for Leukemia Research (1953 )
  • Walker Prize of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in London ( 1961)
  • Pasteur Silver Medal of the Institut Pasteur (1962 )
  • WHO United Nations Prize for Cancer Research (1962 )
  • Bertner Foundation Award (1963 )
  • Special Virus Cancer Program Award from the National Cancer Institute ( 1972)
  • Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award ( 1974)
  • William B. Coley Award ( 1975)
  • Prix ​​ARC Léopold Griffuel in Paris (1978).

In 1973, he was inducted into the National Academy of Sciences and in 1977 in the French Legion of Honour.

Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Epstein–Barr virus World Health Organization Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research Integrated Authority File
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