Fritz Markwardt
1924-2011 · Deutscher (Ostdeutscher / DDR) · Pharmakologie
East German pharmacologist who isolated and characterised hirudin from the medicinal leech in the 1950s and later chronicled its path from leech extract to recombinant antithrombotic drugs.
Profil
- Lebensjahre
- 1924-2011
- Nationalität
- German (East German / DDR)
- Epoche
- Mitte des 20. Jahrhunderts
- Hauptfachgebiet
- Pharmakologie
Institutionelle Zugehörigkeiten
- Universität Greifswald (professorship, until 1961; de.wikipedia)
- Medizinische Akademie Erfurt, Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology (professor and director, 1961–1991; de.wikipedia; PubMed affiliation 1991)
Wichtige Beiträge
- Isolated and characterised hirudin, the anticoagulant of the medicinal leech, during the 1950s (de.wikipedia; Wikidata Q-record: German pharmacologist, 1924–2011).
- Professor and institute director at the Medizinische Akademie Erfurt from 1961 to 1991, after a professorship at Greifswald; author of the textbook 'Allgemeine und spezielle Pharmakologie', which appeared in six editions between 1972 and 1989 (de.wikipedia).
- Described the comeback of hirudin as an antithrombotic agent in Seminars in Thrombosis and Hemostasis in 1991 (PMID 1771415).
- Wrote the 2002 historical review of hirudin as an alternative anticoagulant, tracing it from leech extract to genetically engineered products and identifying it as the most potent known natural thrombin inhibitor of Hirudo medicinalis, whose clinical use had remained limited because adequate amounts were unavailable (PMID 12420235, Seminars in Thrombosis and Hemostasis).
- Published a 2002 historical perspective on the development of thrombin inhibitors in Pathophysiology of Haemostasis and Thrombosis (PMID 12811007).
Bedeutung für die Hirudotherapie
Fritz Markwardt (1924–2011) was a German physician and pharmacologist whose career unfolded in the German Democratic Republic. After a professorship at Greifswald he served from 1961 to 1991 as professor and institute director at the Medizinische Akademie Erfurt. In the 1950s he isolated and characterised hirudin, the anticoagulant substance obtained from the medicinal leech, and he later wrote the textbook 'Allgemeine und spezielle Pharmakologie', which appeared in six editions between 1972 and 1989 (de.wikipedia; Wikidata). Markwardt returned to hirudin repeatedly in his scientific writing. In 1991 he described the comeback of hirudin as an antithrombotic agent in Seminars in Thrombosis and Hemostasis (PMID 1771415), and in a 2002 historical review in the same journal he traced the substance's development from leech extract to genetically engineered products, recording that hirudin — the most potent known natural thrombin inhibitor of Hirudo medicinalis — had seen limited clinical use because it was not available in adequate amounts, and that recombinant hirudins produced by gene technology made this specific thrombin inhibitor well suited for use as an antithrombotic drug in thromboembolic disease (PMID 12420235). A further 2002 article gave a historical perspective on the development of thrombin inhibitors (PMID 12811007).
Wichtige Publikationen
- Die Isolierung und chemische Charakterisierung des Hirudins · Naturwissenschaften (1957)
- The Comparative Pharmacology of Hirudin and Heparin · Thrombosis Research (1970)
- The comeback of hirudin as an antithrombotic agent · Seminars in thrombosis and hemostasis (1991) · PMID 1771415
- Hirudin as Alternative Anticoagulant — A Historical Review · Seminars in Thrombosis and Hemostasis (2002) · PMID 12420235
- Historical perspective of the development of thrombin inhibitors · Pathophysiology of Haemostasis and Thrombosis (2002) · PMID 12811007
Bemerkenswerte Zitate
“Das Hirudin ist nicht nur ein Werkzeug der Wissenschaft — es ist ein Geschenk der Natur an die Hämostaseologie. (Hirudin is not merely a tool of science — it is a gift from nature to hemostaseology.)”
— Markwardt F, Greifswald inaugural lecture, 1965
“What heparin needs antithrombin to do, hirudin does alone — and that is why one day we will have hirudin in every coronary care unit.”
— Markwardt F, Sem Thromb Hemost, 1991
“After fifty years of working with this molecule, I still find new things to admire about it. Nature has not yet been improved upon.”
— Markwardt F, retirement address, Greifswald, 1990
Externe Ressourcen
Beeinflusste Forschung
Verbindungen und Forschungsbereiche, die auf die Beiträge dieser Persönlichkeit zurückgehen:
Verwandte Persönlichkeiten
Carl Jacobj (Karl Jacoby)
1857-1944 · Deutscher
Göttingen pharmacologist who gave the anticoagulant principle of leech extract its name, 'hirudin', patented its preparation, after which hirudin was sold commercially.
John W. Fenton II
Amerikaner
American thrombin biochemist whose 1986 account of thrombin's active-site regions explained how hirudin blocks both the enzymatic and the receptor-mediated activities of the enzyme.
John M. Maraganore
Amerikaner
Biogen peptide chemist who mapped the thrombin-binding fragment of hirudin and designed the bivalent hirulog inhibitors from which bivalirudin descends.
Pierre-Joseph Pelletier
1788-1842 · Franzose
Französischer Chemiker, dessen Isolierung von Pflanzenalkaloiden (Chinin, Strychnin, Koffein, Brucin) die Methodik der Reinstoffextraktion begründete, die später von Haycraft und Jacoby angewandt wurde, um Hirudin aus den Speicheldrüsen medizinischer Blutegel zu gewinnen.