Publikationsserver der Leopoldina
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The Virologist Eugen Haagen (1898 –1972) as a Late Nazi Election to the Leopoldina of a Virologist and Professor of Hygiene at the Reichsuniversität Straßburg
Full text linkEugen Haagen (1898 –1972) trained as virologist in Berlin and in Rockefeller Foundation laboratories in New York. He was appointed to a chair of hygiene at the Reichsuniversität Straßburg in 1942. He conducted extensive experimental research on Sinti and Roma transferred at his request from Auschwitz to Natzweiler concentration camp. He was elected to the Leopoldina in 1944. After the war he took a research job in microbiology at the newly reconstituted Berlin-Buch medical research institute in the Soviet zone. He was arrested by the British and then transferred to French custody. His Leopoldina membership was cancelled when he was convicted of war crimes of coerced experimentation on Sinti and Roma from Auschwitz. When released in 1956 from French custody, he returned to the Federal Republic where he resumed research in microbiology.Eugen Haagen (1898 –1972) wurde in Berlin und in den Laboren der Rockefeller-Stiftung in New York zum Virologenausgebildet. 1942 wurde er auf einen Lehrstuhl für Hygiene an der Reichsuniversität Straßburg berufen. Er führteumfangreiche experimentelle Untersuchungen an Sinti und Roma durch, die auf seinen Wunsch von Auschwitz in das Konzentrationslager Natzweiler transportiert wurden. 1944 wurde er in die Leopoldina gewählt. Nach dem Krieg nahm er eine Forschungsstelle in Berlin-Buch in der Sowjetischen Besatzungszone an. Er wurde von den Briten verhaftet und dem französischen Gewahrsam überstellt. Seine Leopoldina-Mitgliedschaft wurde 1955 wegen seiner Verurteilung als Kriegsverbrecher für Menschenversuche an Sinti und Roma aus Auschwitz annulliert. Nach seiner Entlassung im Jahr 1956 nahm er seine mikrobiologische Forschung in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland wieder auf
Biowissenschaftler als Akteure in Menschenversuchen zur Zeit des Nationalsozialismus. Zum Verantwortungsproblem biomedizinischer Forschung
Full text linkDer Beitrag problematisiert Beispiele biomedizinischer Forschung mit Blick auf Rolle und Verantwortung der involvierten Biowissenschaftler in der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus. Die Beispiele geben darüber hinaus Anlass, biomedizinische Forschung allgemeiner und hinsichtlich ihrer epistemischen Eigendynamik zu hinterfragen, inwieweit der Modellversuch am Tier kein Ersatz für den Versuch am Menschen ist, sondern diesen gerade voraussetzt. Das erste Beispiel behandelt die Experimente an Kindern aus einer psychiatrischen Einrichtung unter Leitung des Genetikers Hans Nachtsheim (1890 –1979) im Jahr 1943, die mit Forschung am Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut für Anthropologie, menschliche Erblehre und Eugenik in Verbindung standen und im Umfeld der nationalsozialistischen Krankenmorde stattfanden. Das zweite Beispiel untersucht Versuche des Biophysikers Boris Rajewsky (1893 –1974) vom Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut für Biophysik in Frankfurt (Main) mit Patientinnen und Patienten einer Kureinrichtung im Kurort Oberschlema zwischen 1942 und 1944 im Zusammenhang der militärischen Erforschung radioaktiver Stoffe.The article problematizes examples of biomedical research with a view to the role and responsibility of the bioscientists involved during the National Socialist era. The examples also provide an opportunity to question biomedical research in general and with regard to its own epistemic dynamics, to what extent model experiments on animals are not a substitute for experiments on humans, but in fact presuppose them. The first example deals with the experiments on children from a psychiatric institution under the direction of the geneticist Hans Nachtsheim (1890 –1979) in 1943, which were connected with research at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Human Heredity and Eugenics and took place in the context of the National Socialist murder of the sick. The second example examines experiments carried out by the biophysicist Boris Rajewsky (1893 –1974) from the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Biophysics in Frankfurt (Main) on patients at a health resort in Oberschlema between 1942 and 1944 in connection with military research into radioactive substances
Politik in der Wissenschaft: Zur Frage einer „NS-Belastung“ bei Mitgliedern der Leopoldina: Einleitung
Full text linkCellular Immunotherapy for Hematological Disorders: From Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplantation to Chimeric Antigen Receptor-engineered T-cell Application
Full text linkAllogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (alloHCT) is the ancestor of modern cellular immunotherapy. Originally intended to function as pure organ replacement treatment – similar to solid organ transplantation – it was successfully introduced in medical practice already more than 50 years ago, at that time in its archetypic form as allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (alloBMT). While alloBMT rapidly became a key treatment tool for multiple hematologic malignancies and bone marrow failure conditions, it was not until the early 1990s that it was scientifically accepted that the efficacy of alloBMT in many indications relied on the immunotherapeutic capacity of the T-cells conferred with the hematopoietic graft rather than on the myeloablative conditioning preceding graft transplantation. Along with the introduction of peripheral blood stem cells as hematopoietic graft source, this provided the basis for developing toxicity-reduced alloHCT strategies. However, alloHCT remained hampered by a high treatment-related morbidity and mortality caused by unavoidable off-target effects associated with the procedure. To this end, chimeric antigen receptor-engineered T-cells (CAR-T-cells) have recently entered the clinical arena as the first successful targeted cellular immunotherapy in hematooncology. CAR-T-cells have rapidly gained acceptance as potentially curative options in aggressive malignancies such as large B-cell lymphoma and multiple myeloma and have replaced alloHCT in some indications. As the first industrially produced cellular therapeutic agent, CAR-T-cells have opened up a plethora of new perspectives in numerous additional hematopoietic and solid neoplasms as well as in nonmalignant disorders such as amyloidosis and autoimmune diseases
Human Islet Isolation, Biobanking, and Distribution for Research
Full text linkGlobally more than 400 million adults are living with diabetes, a condition of dysregulated metabolism characterized by high blood sugar levels and elevated risk for microvascular and macrovascular complications. Many of these individuals live with type 2 diabetes, resulting from a combined insulin resistance and dysfunction of insulin production by the pancreatic islets of Langerhans. Millions also live with type 1 diabetes, an autoimmune disease where the insulin producing islet cells are destroyed and circulating insulin is nearly absent. One treatment for type 1 diabetes that has emerged over the past several decades is the transplantation of cadaveric donor islets into the portal vein of the liver, and other potential novel sites. Alongside this has been the growth of research studies examining human islet function and dysfunction relevant to all forms of diabetes. Research studies using human islet tissue have contributed to our understanding of cellular function, disease genetics, tissue regeneration, metabolism, transplantation and tissue engineering, and has informed current progress in clinical trial of stem cell therapies for diabetes. This talk will briefly highlight progress in islet transplantation in Edmonton, and the relationship between this and the establishment of a human research islet isolation program to parallel clinical islet tissue processing. We will highlight some differences in tissue isolation for transplant and research, and will describe current efforts of the Alberta Diabetes Institute IsletCore (www.isletcore.ca) on supplying the international research community with research islet tissue, along with recent challenges faced during the COVID19 pandemic. Finally, some notable research outcomes in understanding islet physiology and improving islet transplantation will be discussed
Fecal Microbiota Transfer
Full text linkFecal microbiota transfer (FMT) has been established as a standard of care treatment approach in patients with recurrent Clostridioides difficile infections (rCDI). In Germany, FMTs are being carried out in the context of interventional trials, but also as individualized treatment attempts in patients fulfilling the legal criteria for this setting. International guidelines on standards for donor screening and manufacture of FMT preparations have been published to assure consistent safety of FMT products. In this overview, the efficacy and safety of FMT, different forms of application, as well as its use in indications besides CDI will be discussed
Genetically Tailored Donor Pigs for Xenotransplantation: Perspective of a Biotechnologist
Full text linkThe number of donated human organs and tissues for patients with terminal organ failure falls far short of the need. Alternative sources, such as organs and tissues from animals, are therefore urgently required. During the past few years, major progress has been made in the development of genetically multi-modified donor pigs, and their organs have been shown to be safe and efficacious in life-supporting transplantation models into non-human primates, paving the way to clinical xenotransplantation studies. In spite of the existing technical capability to generate xeno-organ donor pigs with a large number of genetic modifications, several reasons argue for keeping them as simple as possible, at least for initial clinical trials. – The longest survival of life-supporting cardiac and renal xenografts in preclinical models has been achieved with donors who showed only a small number of modifications. – As the number of modifications increases, demonstrating the function, long-term stability and expression of each one – a potential regulatory requirement – may become prohibitive. – Health and wellbeing of the donor-animals may be compromised. – Certain modifications may have unforeseen negative effects; for example, the knock out of the cmAH gene increased the antigenicity of porcine cells exposed to non-human primate serum and should be avoided in preclinical trials. – There is also a risk of unpredicted interactions between the various modifications. The optimal number of genetic modifications that a xeno pig should carry is still unknown. Different organs might require different combinations of modifications. For a multitude of practical and safety reasons, the number of modifications should be kept to a minimum. With the current capability to efficiently generate the ideal xeno-pig and considering the considerable progress made in the last 5 years, xeno-organ and tissue transplantation is becoming a realistic option to alleviate the current donor shortage
Transplantation: Ethics, Techniques, Immunology
Full text linkToday, numerous tissues and organs are transplanted routinely and with increasing success rates, for example bone marrow, cornea, heart valves, skin, kidney, heart, lung, pancreas or liver. Transplantation is also playing an increasingly important role in cancer therapy. Furthermore, transplantation saves people's lives and secures their quality of life. The conditions for successful transplantation have been set since the middle of the 20th century: doctors’ intuition, surgical skills, and the identification of effective immunosuppressants were prerequisites for these developments. A pressing current problem in transplantation medicine is the large demand for organs/tissues, compared to the low willingness to donate. Accordingly, the stagnating willingness to donate organs, the importance of saving lives through organ donation, the increasing need for organ donation, and underlying ethical issues are currently being weighed against each other in an intensive social debate with regard to possible legal requirements for organ donation. The realization of strategies that have been used since the turn of the century to grow tissues and whole organs from stem cells and use them as organ substitutes, as well as to create conditions for transferring non-human organs to humans, could defuse this debate in the future
Abgrenzung, Duldung, Gewalt und Toleranz: Der lange Weg der christlichen Konfessionen miteinander (16. bis frühes 19. Jahrhundert)
Full text linkGegenüber von Protestanten und Katholiken ein, das die europäische Geschichte bis weit ins 20. Jahrhundert hinein prägte. Die Position des „Wir und die Anderen“ wurde in den politischen Regionen des 16. bis 18. Jahrhunderts unterschiedlich intensiv gelebt, sie reichte von der Duldung über das Nebeneinander bis zur gewaltsamen Vertreibung bzw. erzwungenen Auswanderung. Mit dem Westfälischen Frieden von 1648 war ein Reichsreligionsrecht formuliert, das den Weg für ein rechtlich definiertes Nebeneinander ebnete, indem es den konfessionsbezogenen Wahrheitsanspruch neutralisierte. Damit waren Maßstäbe für weitere europäische Regelungen gesetzt und zugleich die Entwicklung eines Toleranzgedankens ermöglicht, der über die Duldung hinausreichte. Die jüngere Forschung zur Entwicklung in Ost- wie Westeuropa hat herausgearbeitet, dass es trotz jener schroffen Gegensätze unterhalb der „großen Politik“ seit dem 16. Jahrhundert eine sehr differenzierte Form des Umgangs der konfessionsbezogenen Gruppen miteinander gegeben hat. Diese Formen lassen sich bis ins 18. Jahrhundert als funktionales Miteinander, als „konfessionelle Pragmatik“ bezeichnen. Die Lebensformen, die dabei entstanden, waren stark geprägt von den jeweiligen politisch-rechtlichen und traditionalen Kontexten, u. a. auch durch die Nähe oder Ferne anderer Denominationen.The division of the Roman Christianity by the reformation movement since 1517 was the beginning of strict tensions between the catholic and protestant denominations, which formed the development of European History until the end of the 20th century. The position “We and the Others” seemed to be realised in different forms within the political regions from the 16th to the 18th century. It ranges from toleration to living side by side to forcible expulsion or forced emigration. In the text of the Westphalian Peace (1648) there was formulated a religious right for the Ancient German Empire, which paved the way for a legally defined living side by side neutralising the confessional claim of religious truth. This has been the scale for other regions and helpful for the development of the idea of tolerance which will be more than toleration. Recent research on historical change in eastern and western Europe could show that despite the strict confrontation on the “higher political level” since the 16th century there has been a quite differentiated treatment and communication between the denominations. These forms can be described as “functional together”, as “confessional pragmatic” way of life until the end of the 18th century. The lifestyle which has been created was characterised by the different political-legal and traditional contexts and by the near or far of other denominations
