The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1936
Sir Henry Dale, Otto Loewi
Otto
Loewi was born on June 3, 1873, in Frankfurt-am-Main,
Germany, the son of Jacob Loewi, a merchant, and Anna
Willstätter.
After having attended the humanistic Gymnasium (grammar school)
in his native town, he entered in 1891 the Universities of Munich and Strassburg (at
that time part of Germany) as a medical student. Apart from his
attendance at the inspiring anatomy courses of Gustav Schwalbe,
however, he seldom went to the medical lectures, being more
inclined towards those held at the philosophical faculty. Only in
the summer of 1893 did he seriously prepare for his
«Physicum», the first medical examination, which he
just managed to pass. It was not until the autumn of 1894 that
his indifference to medicine suddenly gave way to almost
enthusiastic interest. In 1896 he took his doctor's degree at
Strassburg University, his thesis dealing with a subject
suggested by Professor Oswald Schmiedeberg, the famous
«Father of Pharmacology». Also responsible for his
medical education were: Bernhard Naunyn, distinguished clinician
and experimental pathologist, Oscar Minkowski, and Adolph
Magnus-Levy.
After his graduation he followed a course in inorganic analytical
chemistry with Martin Freund, in Frankfurt, and afterwards spent
a few months working in the biochemical institute of Franz
Hofmeister in Strassburg. During 1897-1898 he was assistant to
Carl von Noorden, clinician at the City Hospital in Frankfurt.
Soon, however, after seeing the high mortality in countless cases
of far-advanced tuberculosis and pneumonia, left without any
treatment because of lack of therapy, he decided to drop his
intention to become a clinician and instead to carry out research
in basic medical science, in particular pharmacology. In 1898 he
succeeded in becoming an assistant of Professor Hans Horst Meyer,
the renowned pharmacologist at the University of
Marburg-an-der-Lahn, from 1904 Professor of Pharmacology in
Vienna. In 1905 Loewi became Associate Professor at Meyer's
laboratory, and in 1909 he wass appointed to the Chair of
Pharmacology in Graz.
During his first years in Marburg, Loewi's studies were in the
field of metabolism. As a result of his work on the action of
phlorhizin, a glucoside provoking glycosuria, and another one on
nuclein metabolism in man, he was appointed
«Privatdozent» (Lecturer) in 1900. Two years later he
published his paper «Über Eiweisssynthese im
Tierkörper» (On protein synthesis in the animal body),
proving that animals are able to rebuild their proteins from
their degradation products, the amino acids - an essential
discovery with regard to nutrition.
That same year he also published the first part of a series of
papers about experimental contributions to the physiology and
pharmacology of kidney function.
In 1902 Loewi also spent some months in Starling's laboratory, in
London, where he also worked with W. M. Bayliss, Starling's
brother-in-law. And it was in this laboratory that he first met
his lifelong friend Henry Dale, who was later to share the Nobel
Prize with him.
After his return to Marburg in 1902 Loewi continued to study the
function of the kidney and the mechanism of the action of
diuretics. On his arrival in Vienna in 1905 he again took up the
problems connected with carbohydrate metabolism. He proved
thereby that preference for fructose rather than glucose is not
only characteristic of pancreatectomized dogs, as earlier
demonstrated by Minkowski, but also of dogs deprived of their
glycogen by other means, e.g. by phosphorus poisoning. He also
proved that the heart in contrast to the liver, cannot utilize
fructose. And finally that epinephrine injections into rabbits
completely depleted of their liver glycogen by starvation brought
the glycogen back to almost normal values in spite of continued
starvation. His other investigations in Vienna, done jointly with
Alfred Fröhlich, dealt with the vegetative nervous system
(stimulated by the discovery made by Gaskell and Langley of the
existence of two divisions of this nervous system, and also as a
result of his coming into contact with T.R. Elliott in Cambridge, where the
latter was conducting his final experiments on the action of
epinephrine). His classic paper in this field was published in
1905, the best-known result of these studies being the
observation that small doses of cocaine potentiate the responses
of sympathetically innervated organs to epinephrine and
sympathetic nerve stimulation.
It was as Professor in Graz that Loewi cultivated his gifts as a
lecturer. A number of his associates during this period came from
the U.S.A. Loewi continued his studies of carbohydrate
metabolism, investigating among other things the conditions
responsible for epinephrine hyperglycaemia.
In 1921 Loewi discovered the chemical transmission of nerve
impulses the research of which was greatly developed by him and
his co-workers in the years following, culminating ultimately in
his demonstation that the parasympathetic substance
(«Vagusstoff») is acetylcholine and that a substance
closely related to adrenaline played a corresponding role at the
sympathetic nerve endings. It was for these researches that he
received the Nobel Prize in 1936, jointly with Sir Henry Dale.
This and other discoveries in the fields of chemistry, physics,
and pharmacology have since then led to a complete renewal of the
concepts of the sympathetic nervous system.
When the Germans invaded Austria in 1938, Loewi was forced to
leave his homeland. (But only after he had been compelled to
instruct the Swedish bank in Stockholm to transfer the Nobel
Prize money to a prescribed Nazi-controlled bank.)
After spending some time as Visiting Professor at the Université Libre
in Brussels, and at the Nuffield Institute, Oxford, Loewi accepted an
invitation to join the College of Medicine, New York University, as
Research Professor of Pharmacology, and to work in George
Wallace's Laboratory. He arrived in the United States in 1940. In
America Loewi came into close contact with many outstanding
biologists from all over the world and here he found much
inspiration for his work.
Loewi held honorary degrees from New York University, Yale University, and
from the Universities of Graz and Frankfurt.
He was recipient of the Physiology Prize of the Royal Academy of
Sciences of Bologna, of the Lieben Prize of the Academy of
Vienna, and of the Cameron Prize of the University of
Edinburgh (1944). He was an Honorary Member of the Physiological Society
(London), of the Harvey Society (New York), and of the
Società Italiana di Biologia Sperimentale; he was also
Corresponding Member of the Society of Physicians in Vienna, of
the Viennese Biological Society, and of the Society for the
Advancement of Natural Sciences in Marburg-an-der-Lahn; and was
Member of the Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina, in
Halle. In 1954 he was appointed Foreign Member of the Royal
Society.
Since his schooldays, Loewi showed keen interest in the
humanities. He always enjoyed music, architecture, and painting,
and in his younger years seldom missed an opportunity to visit
museums and exhibitions.
In 1908 he married Guida Goldschmiedt, daughter of Dr. Guido
Goldschmiedt, then Professor of Chemistry in Prague, and later in
Vienna. They had three sons, Hans, Victor, Guido; and one
daughter, Anna. Professor Loewi became an American citizen in
1946. He died December 25, 1961.
From Nobel Lectures, Physiology or Medicine 1922-1941, Elsevier Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 1965
This autobiography/biography was written at the time of the award and first published in the book series Les Prix Nobel. It was later edited and republished in Nobel Lectures. To cite this document, always state the source as shown above.
Copyright © The Nobel Foundation 1936
We are currently working on the web site. Please report errors or problems.
