Johannes Fibiger

April 23, 1867, Mr.. - 30 January 1928
Danish physician and scientist Johannes Andreas Grib Fibiger was born in Silkeborg, family physician SE. Fibiger and writer Elfrid (Muller) Fibiger. In 1890, Mr.. F. received a medical degree and within a short time he studied bacteriology under Robert Koch and Emil von Behring. He worked at the University of Copenhagen Carl J. Salomonsenom, one of the leading bacteriologists of the time, until 1894, then became a doctor in the Army Reserve Blehemskoy Hospital in Copenhagen.
. His doctoral dissertation on bacteriological aspects of diphtheria, was completed in 1895, and in 1900
. he was appointed professor of pathological anatomy at the University of Copenhagen. At first attention F. was still riveted to diphtheria - he made great efforts to introduce the Bering serum for the treatment of this disease in Denmark - and to tuberculosis, . in particular the relationship between outbreaks of tuberculosis in cattle and the spread of the disease among humans.,
. With the rise in the XIX century
. new discipline - cell biology - the first scientific description of cancer. Although in the same period developed as bacteriology and appeared theory of the origin of disease, these achievements have not been used in the study of cancer. One of the obstacles encountered on the way cancer research is the lack of models of the disease, reproducible in animals. There are several theories of carcinogenesis, but due to the fact that the disease can not be replicated and studied in the laboratory, these theories are still in need of confirmation or refutation. F. would later write: 'The problem of cancer had to be resolved before the disease has become the subject of experimental studies, to provide such important results in the study of pathological anatomy of a number of other diseases'.
. In 1907, conducting post-mortem study of rats infected with TB, F
. noticed that some animals showed signs of stomach cancer and nematodes (Spiroptera neoplastica; modern name Gongylonema neoplasticum) within cancerous tumors. Naturally, this "led him to perceive the idea of parasites possible cause of neoplasm [tumor] '. Scientists found that the animals arrived in the laboratory with a sugar-refinery.
Clinging to this thread, F. went to the factory, but, having examined him, did not find anything unusual there, except that it was inhabited by hordes of cockroaches. Suspecting the existence of a possible link between insects, rats, and tumors, researchers recruited at the factory cockroaches and fed them to rats, received from other places. After the death of rat F. made post-mortem examination: in many cases showed evidence of gastric cancer. In 1913, Mr.. he published the first detailed study of cancer in rodents under the influence of the larvae of the parasite S. neoplastica.
During the First World War, two Japanese scientists doing experiments on the induction of skin cancer in rabbits, greasing their ears coal tar. F. was the first European scientist, repeat after the war, these experiments. In the 20-ies. He spent a number of studies of cancer caused by coal tar. Comparing these types of tumors from those that arose as a result Spiroptera, and clinical forms of the disease, F. came to the conclusion that cancer is caused by the interaction of various external influences with hereditary (genetic) predisposition. In this latter usually manifests itself not as a general predisposition to disease, as well as a tendency to develop tumors of a particular body in the presence of an appropriate stimulus.
'For the discovery of carcinoma caused Spiroptera' F. was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 1926, which was presented to him a year later. 'Skarmlivaya healthy mice, cockroaches, containing larvae Spiroptera, F. could stimulate the growth of cancerous tumors of the stomach of a large number of animals', - said in. Vernshtedt of the Karolinska Institute in a speech with the presentation of awards. 'For the first time become possible to achieve the experimental transformation of normal cells into malignant tumor cells. Thus was not convincingly shown that cancer is always caused by worms - continued Vernshtedt - but that it may provoke external influence '.
Proceedings F. the impact Spiroptera and coal tar pitch helped revive interest in the study of cancer, in particular the role of carcinogens. Nevertheless, his theory about the connection between cancer and parasites has not been a practical embodiment. Only much later in this century - in the 80-ies. - Isolated true cancer genes, this achievement was made possible by recombinant DNA.
In 1884, Mr.. F. married Mathilde Fibiger. He died in Copenhagen on 30 January 1928, Mr.. from colon cancer and developed on the background of heart failure.
F. was a member of the Danish Medical Association, the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences, the Swedish Medical Association, he was also a foreign member of the Royal Belgian Academy of Medicine and the Royal Society in Uppsala (Sweden). He was awarded honorary degrees from universities of Paris and Louvain, as well as several other agencies.