Rudolf Weigl 613786 224074460 2008-07-07T05:06:44Z 142.161.191.133 [[Image:Weigl-pomnik.JPG|thumb|right|200px|Monument in Wrocław]] Professor '''Rudolf Stefan Weigl''' ([[1883]] - [[1957]]) was a famous [[Poland|Polish]] [[biologist]] and inventor of the first effective [[vaccine]] for [[epidemic typhus]]. Of German ethnic descent, he was born in [[Přerov]], [[Moravia]], and graduated in [[1907]] from the [[University of Lviv]] with a degree in Natural Sciences. He founded the [[Weigl Institute]] in [[Lviv]], [[Ukraine]], where he did his vaccine-producing research. At the same time, he employed and protected [[Poland|Polish]] [[intellectuals]], [[Jew]]s and members of the [[Polish underground]] during the [[Soviet Union]] and [[Nazi Germany]] occupations in [[World War II]], until the Institute was shut down when the [[Soviet Union]] returned in [[1944]] [http://www.humboldt.edu/~rescuers/book/Makuch/halina/HStory1.html]. == Method of Vaccine Production == In [[1930]], following on the [[1909]] discovery of [[Charles Nicolle]] that [[lice]] were the [[vector (biology)|vector]] of [[epidemic typhus]] and on the work for the vaccine for the closely related [[Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever]], Weigl took the next step and developed a technique to produce the vaccine by growing infected lice and crushing them into a vaccine paste. He refined this technique over the years until [[1933]] when he performed large-scale testing. <!-- Commented out because image was deleted: [[Image:Weigl Institute.jpg|thumb|right|The Weigl Institute]] --> The method specifically broke into 4 major steps: * Growing healthy lice, for about 12 days * Injecting them with typhus * Growing them more, for 5 more days * Extracting the midguts and grinding them up into a paste (which was the vaccine) Growing lice meant feeding them blood, the more human the better. At first he tested his method on [[Guinea pigs]] but around [[1933]] he commenced large-scale testing on humans, feeding the lice on human blood by letting them suck on human legs through a screen. This could cause typhus during the latter phase, when the lice were infected. He alleviated this problem by vaccinating the human "injectors" heavily, which successfully prevented them from death (though some did develop the disease). [http://www.lwow.home.pl/Weigl.html] Dr. Weigl himself developed the disease, but recovered. The first major application of this vaccine was between [[1936]] and [[1943]] by [[Belgium|Belgian]] missionaries in [[China]]. This vaccine was dangerous to produce and was hard to make on a large scale. Other vaccines were developed over time that were less dangerous and more economical to produce, including the [[Herald R. Cox|Cox]] vaccine developed from [[egg yolk]]. [[Image:Weigl-Lwow.jpg||thumb|150px|right|Rudolf Weigl]] == External links == * [http://www.lwow.home.pl/Weigl/human.html Biography of Weigl (1967)] by Stefan Kryński * [http://lwow.home.pl/rudolf-weigl-uk.html Page with many Weigl links and pictures] * [http://www.lwow.home.pl/Weigl.html Overview of the experiment--''Maintenance of human-fed live lice in the laboratory and production of Weigl's exanthematous typhus vaccine'' (1999)] by Wacław Szybalski * [http://www.lwow.home.pl/Weigl/krynski/teoria.html ''Ann. Acad. Med. Gedan.'', 1974, 4, 19-51] by [[Stefan Krynski]], [[Eugeniusz Becla]], and [[Marian Machel]] * [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Display&dopt=pubmed_pubmed&from_uid=9608839 Bibliography of typhus and Weigl history articles from PubMed] * [http://www.nobel.se/medicine/nomination/nomination.php?action=advsearch&key1=candname&log1=LIKE&string1=Weigl&log10=OR&key2=candname&log2=LIKE&string2=&log11=OR&key3=candname&log3=LIKE&string3=&startyear=&endyear=&order1=year&order2=nomname&order3=cand1name&submit2.x=0&submit2.y=0 Nominations for the Nobel Prize between 1930-1939] * [http://www.forum-znak.org.pl/index-en.php?t=wydarzenia&id=813 News article about receipt of "Righteous Among the Nations of the World" medal for helping Jews during WWII] * [http://www.humboldt.edu/~rescuers/book/Makuch/halina/HStory1.html Recollections of Halina Szymanska Ogrodzinska, reporting the underground activities of the Weigl Institute] * [http://www.homepages.ucl.ac.uk/~ucgaanl/galleryFive.htm Pictures of the Weigl Institute and a little history] * [http://www.pnas.org/cgi/reprint/93/20/10539.pdf ''How Charles Nicolle of the Pasteur Institute discovered that epidemic typhus is transmitted by lice: reminiscences from my years at the Pasteur Institute in Paris''] by [[Ludwik Gross]], August 6, 1996 {{DEFAULTSORT:Weigl, Rudolf}} [[Category:1883 births]] [[Category:1957 deaths]] [[Category:Polish biologists]] [[Category:Polish inventors]] [[Category:People from Lviv]] [[Category:Polish Righteous Among the Nations]] [[de:Rudolf Weigl]] [[pl:Rudolf Weigl]]