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Gerhard Domagk

German bacteriologist (1895-1964) · Germany · Doctors · Died at 68

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He turned a dye into the first antibiotic you could buy - then tested it on his own daughter when infection threatened her life.

A life in dates

1964Died24 April 19641959Foreign Member of the Royal SocietyAward1956Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter PrizeAward1954Grand Cross of the Order of Civil HealthAward1940Aronson PrizeAward1939Nobel Prize in Physiology or MedicineAward1937Emil Fischer MedalAwardFresenius PrizeAward1895Born30 October 1895

Also in Deutsch

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Awards

Foreign Member of the Royal Society1959
Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize1956
Grand Cross of the Order of Civil Health1954
Aronson Prize1940
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine1939
Emil Fischer Medal1937
Fresenius Prize1937
Pour le Mérite for Sciences and Arts order
Knight Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
Cameron Prize of the University of Edinburgh

About this person

Gerhard Domagk was working as a pathologist at the University of Münster when IG Farben brought him to Elberfeld in 1927 to screen chemical compounds for therapeutic use. He tested a benzene derivative synthesised by Fritz Mietzsch and Joseph Klarer - an azo dye carrying a sulphonamide side chain - and found it killed Streptococcus pyogenes. In 1935 his daughter Hildegarde injured herself and developed a streptococcal infection; facing amputation, Domagk used the compound and cured her. The drug went to market as Prontosil, the first commercially available antibiotic. He was awarded the 1939 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, but the Nazi government barred him from accepting it. In 1947 he finally received the diploma and delivered his lecture.

Country
Germany
Category
Doctors
Type
Doctor
Status
deceased
Dates
Lived 1895 to 1964 · aged 68

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