LEVY Otto

June 3, 1873, Mr.. - December 25, 1961
German-American pharmacologist and physiologist Otto Loewi was born in Frankfurt, was the first child and only son of Jacob Levy, a wealthy wine merchant, and his second wife Anna (Vilshtadter) Levy. L. most of his childhood spent in urban Gardta; entered the Frankfurt school, when he was nine years. Of particular importance in the training program was given to subjects such as Latin and Greek, the history of classical civilization, and, although L. not too advanced in mathematics and physics, the humanities he had excellent grades. L. wanted to become an art critic, but at the insistence of parents in 1891. enrolled in the University of Strasbourg to study medicine.
. In medical school, taught by distinguished professors, have had a great influence: Gustav Schwalbe, who read anatomy, Bernhard Naunin - Medicine and Experimental Pathology, Pharmacologist Oswald Schmiedeberg - experimental study
. The first scientific work of L. was performed precisely under the guidance of Schmiedeberg. It was a dissertation on the effects of prussic acid, arsenic and phosphorus on the isolated heart of the frog. L. ascribed arose from his interest in biology and physiology is partly influenced by Oscar Minkowski, who conducted research on the role of the pancreas (gland, secreting insulin) in the development of diabetes. Definite effect on him and has Friedrich Miescher - Swiss biologist.
After graduating from medical school in 1896. L. visited Italy, a country he loved throughout life. In 1897. He briefly returned to Strasbourg to take a short training course in the biochemical institute of Franz Hofmeister, allowed him to increase the knowledge in the field of chemistry and experimental methods of research. He became assistant to the medical department of City Hospital in Frankfurt, where he worked with people suffering from tuberculosis and pneumonia. High mortality rates from pneumonia, especially among the physically strong young men, repulsed by L. hunt for studies of clinical medicine. In 1898, Mr.. he was appointed assistant to the pharmacological department of the University of Marburg, headed by Hans Meyer, who became his friend, co-author and supervisor. L. remained in its establishment until 1905. In 1900, Mr.. L. was promoted to private-docent (lecturer). This was the first step in the academic field. Within two years, he published his first studies in t.ch. first of a series of articles on renal function and effect of diuretics (drugs which increase urine output).
In 1903, Mr.. L. spent several months at University College in London in the laboratory of Ernest Starling, where he studied experimental physiological techniques. There he met with Henry X. Dale. In the British academic circles L. also met with the University of Cambridge physiologists Dzh.N. Langley and H.K. Anderson, The structure, functions and relationships of the two divisions of the autonomic nervous system - sympathetic and parasympathetic. (Vegetative or autonomous nervous system controls the activity of the heart, glands and smooth muscles.) While many scientists tried to determine the possibility of chemical transmission of nerve impulses. In 1901, Mr.. Langley said that the substances produced by the adrenal glands (the endocrine glands, located above the kidneys) produce the same effect as the stimulation of certain nerves of the sympathetic nervous system transmitted via pulses. T.R. Elliot, also worked in Cambridge, there were only one or two years before the publication of Labor, which has been suggested that nerve impulses in the sympathetic nervous system are transmitted using the hormone adrenaline. VE. Dixon, another Cambridge physiologist who formulated the hypothesis that the chemical Muscarine is a mediator of the parasympathetic nervous system.
After moving to Vienna University of Meyer in 1904. L. became acting head of the pharmacology department in Marburg. But a year later he followed Meyer in Vienna, remaining his assistant until 1907, then was promoted to assistant professor. In that year, spending his vacation in Switzerland, he met Guido Goldschmidt, who were there with her mother and father - Guido Goldschmidt, professor of chemistry in Prague, and later - in Vienna. The following year, L. and Guido were married, the couple had four children.
Working in the University of Vienna, A. published several articles on various subjects, mostly in collaboration with other scientists. His works were diabetes, stimulation of the heart through the vagus nerve (the largest nerve in the body), the effect of adrenaline and noradrenaline on blood pressure. In 1909, Mr.. L. was appointed Professor of Pharmacology University of Graz, and remained in office until the Nazi occupation of Austria in 1938
. Although more than 15 years since the first time as Elliott suggested that nerve impulses are transmitted by means of chemical mediators, to 1921
. still not received the final proofs for the existence of these substances. In that year, on the eve of Easter Sunday, L., waking up at night, in his own words, 'jotted down a few marks on a piece of thin paper. In the morning I could not decipher their scribbles. The following night, at three o'clock, the same thought struck me again. This was the scheme of the experiment designed to determine whether the hypothesis is correct chemical momentum transfer, expressed by me 17 years ago. I immediately got out of bed, went to the lab and put a simple experiment on the frog's heart in accordance with the scheme emerged at night '.
In this experiment, L. two isolated frog hearts. After stimulation of the vagus nerve of one heart, he took a certain amount of fluid perfused through it and brought her by injection into the second heart. The frequency of contractions of the second heart dropped as after stimulation of the vagus nerve. Then L. spent another nerve stimulation, the accelerating frequency of contractions of the first heart. Following the transfer of the perfused through him of the liquid in the second heart rhythm of his cuts and participation. Thus he proved that no nerves, and released chemicals they directly affect the heart. Having proved the hypothesis of chemical transmission of excitation, A. called mediators 'vagus-substance' (vagus-substance) and 'simpatikus-substance' (accelerating substance). Over the next 15 years, L. and his colleagues have published 14 papers on chemical transmission of nerve impulses.
By 1926, Mr.. L. with Ernst Navratilom identified 'vagus-substance' like acetylcholine. In the same year due to the fact that other experts have experienced difficulties when trying to reproduce the results of experiments LA, he was asked to demonstrate his experiments at the XII International Physiological Congress in Stockholm. Not without some excitement, he managed to successfully carry out their 18 times in one and the same heart. L. was right, explaining the difficulties in playing his experiences physiological differences used species of frogs.
In 1933, reading Garveevskuyu lecture in New York, L. expressed doubts about the existence of chemical mediators in the autonomic nervous system. Henry X. Dale had the opportunity to demonstrate chemical transmission of nerve impulses in motor nerve endings. In 1936, Mr.. L. posted a message in which a mediator of the sympathetic nervous system was called adrenaline (epinephrine). Subsequent studies showed that the main mediator of the sympathetic nervous system is noradrenaline (norepinephrine). However, it is simple and convincing experiments L. first made the theory of chemical transmission pulse examination and experimental verification, opening the way for further research.
L. and Dale were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1936. 'for his discoveries relating to chemical transmission of nerve impulses'. In the welcoming speech on the occasion of awarding Goran Liliestrand of the Karolinska Institute described the 'very simple but ingenious experiment' by which L. 'showed that the nerve stimulus may provide substances that have an effect, characteristic of nervous excitement'. 'Further observations - continued Liliestrand - leaves no doubt that the very nerve impulse is transmitted to the body by chemical means'.
During the Nazi occupation of Austria in 1938. L. and two of his younger son were arrested and imprisoned along with many other Jewish citizens. He was released two months later, and his sons - one month. Once L. translated he received the Nobel Prize in Nazi-controlled bank, he was allowed to leave for Brussels, where he worked in the position of visiting professor at the Free University. During his visit to England in 1939. the Second World War broke. After several months spent at Oxford University, he was appointed professor of pharmacology, conduct research, in medical school at New York University. L. arrived in New York in 1940, the following year he was joined by his wife and children, in 1946. He became an American citizen.
Continuing to conduct research work until 1955, L. spent the rest of his life mainly on writing articles and memoirs, as well as lectures. In 1958, Mr.. sudden death of his wife, and in 1961,. in New York at age 88, died LA
L. been awarded numerous honors and awards. Particular appreciation gave him the election of a member of the Royal Society of London in 1954. Among his awards - Prize Cameron and honor to give lectures at Edinburgh University (1944), honorary degrees from New York University, Yale University, the University of Graz and Frankfurt. He was an honorary member of the London Physiological Society, Garveevskogo Society, Italian Society of Experimental Biology.