Leopold Kirschner
{{short description|Austro-Hungarian, Dutch, and New Zealand bacteriologist}}
Leopold Kirschner (born 12 May 1889, died 23 November 1970) was an Austro-Hungarian, Dutch, and New Zealand bacteriologist specializing in leptospirosis.{{Cite journal|last1=Whitcombe|first1=E.|last2=Maze|first2=M.J.|last3=Crump|first3=J.A.|date=2020|title=Leopold Kirschner, Edward Sayers, and Neil Bruère: the initial descriptions of leptospirosis in New Zealand|journal=Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health|volume=44|issue=1|pages=5–7|doi=10.1111/1753-6405.12946|issn=1753-6405|pmid=31667900|doi-access=free}} He is known for his work on the survival of Leptospira spp in the environment,{{Cite journal|last=Kirschner|first=L.|title=Umwandlungsversuche an wasserspirochaeten|journal=Z Hyg Infektionskr|volume=113|pages=48–60|doi=10.1007/BF02177064|s2cid=39862570}}{{Cite journal|last1=Kirschner|first1=L.|last2=Maguire|first2=T.|date=1957|title=Survival of Leptospira outside their hosts|url=https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/13465012|journal=The New Zealand Medical Journal|volume=56|issue=314|pages=385–391|issn=0028-8446|pmid=13465012}} research on conditions and media for Leptospira growth,{{Cite journal|last1=Kirschner|first1=L.|last2=Maguire|first2=T.|date=1955|title=Antileptospiral effect of milk|url=https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/13288814|journal=The New Zealand Medical Journal|volume=54|issue=303|pages=560–564|issn=0028-8446|pmid=13288814}}{{Cite journal|last1=Kirschner|first1=L.|last2=Maguire|first2=T.|last3=Bertaud|first3=W. S.|date=1957|title=Further Evidence of the Antileptospiral Effect of Milk: Electron Microscopic Studies|journal=British Journal of Experimental Pathology|volume=38|issue=4|pages=357–361|issn=0007-1021|pmc=2082602|pmid=13460180}}{{Cite journal|last1=Kirschner|first1=L.|last2=Graham|first2=L.|date=1959|title=Growth, Purification and Maintenance of Leptospira on Solid Media|journal=British Journal of Experimental Pathology|volume=40|issue=1|pages=57–60|issn=0007-1021|pmc=2082293|pmid=13638484}} his role in the initial discoveries of leptospirosis in New Zealand,{{Cite journal|last1=Kirschner|first1=L.|last2=Gray|first2=W. G.|date=1951|title=Leptospirosis in New Zealand; infection with spirochaetes in animals and man|url=https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14882570|journal=The New Zealand Medical Journal|volume=50|issue=278|pages=342–351|issn=0028-8446|pmid=14882570}} for early epidemiologic descriptions of leptospirosis as an occupational disease of dairy farmers,{{Cite journal|last1=Faine|first1=S.|last2=Kirschner|first2=L.|date=1953|title=Human leptospirosis in New Zealand, 1951-1952|url=https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/13054918|journal=The New Zealand Medical Journal|volume=52|issue=287|pages=12–14|issn=0028-8446|pmid=13054918}} and for the major pathogenic Leptospira species, Leptospira kirschneri, that was named in his honor.{{Cite journal|last1=Ramadass|first1=P.|last2=Jarvis|first2=B. D.|last3=Corner|first3=R. J.|last4=Penny|first4=D.|last5=Marshall|first5=R. B.|date=1992|title=Genetic characterization of pathogenic Leptospira species by DNA hybridization|journal=International Journal of Systematic Bacteriology|volume=42|issue=2|pages=215–219|doi=10.1099/00207713-42-2-215|issn=0020-7713|pmid=1581182|doi-access=free}}
Early life and education
Kirschner was born in Andrichau, near Bielitz, in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, (present-day Andrychów, Poland) to Jewish parents. He studied medicine in Vienna. Kirschner's studies were interrupted by service in the medical corps during World War One. Following the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Kirschner followed Professor Robert Doerr, an experimental pathologist,{{Cite web|last=Berger|first=S.|date=2010|title="Sie hätten in ein grosses Institut hinein- gehört" – Robert Doerr und der Boom der Basler Hygiene|url=https://unigeschichte.unibas.ch/cms/upload/FaecherUndFakultaeten/Downloads/Berger_DoerrBaslerHygiene.pdf|website=Universität Basel}} to Amsterdam for further studies at the Koninklijk Instituut voor de Tropen (KIT), the Dutch Royal Tropical Institute. KIT housed the first leptospirosis reference laboratory in Europe.{{Cite web|title=WHO {{!}} Leptospirosis|url=https://www.who.int/zoonoses/institutions/Leptospirosis/en/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050319004553/http://www.who.int/zoonoses/institutions/Leptospirosis/en/|url-status=dead|archive-date=March 19, 2005|access-date=2020-08-09|website=WHO}}{{Cite web|title=Leptospirosis Reference Centre|url=https://leptospira.amc.nl/leptospirosis-reference-centre/|access-date=2020-08-09|website=Leptospirosis Reference Centre}}
Career and research
= Pasteur Institute, Bandung, Dutch East Indies =
In 1921 Kirschner joined the Pasteur Institute{{Cite web|last=JackTour|first=Diposkan oleh Redaksi|title=Institute Pasteur Bandung|url=http://bandung.jacktour.com/2015/12/institute-pasteur-bandung.html|access-date=2020-08-08}} at Bandung, Java, in the Dutch East Indies (present-day Indonesia) where he served as Deputy Director of the Institute under Louis Otten.{{Cite web|date=2019-04-19|title=KNAW Historisch Ledenbestand {{!}} Digitaal Wetenschapshistorisch Centrum|url=https://www.dwc.knaw.nl/biografie/pmknaw/?pagetype=authorDetail&aId=PE00002181|access-date=2020-08-08|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190419204853/https://www.dwc.knaw.nl/biografie/pmknaw/?pagetype=authorDetail&aId=PE00002181|archive-date=2019-04-19}} The Institute was responsible for preparing vaccines and carrying out diagnostic services for 70 million people. While there, Kirschner undertook important work on the survival in the environment of the bacteria that causes leptospirosis, and he and a colleague developed an effective vaccine against plague, testing early versions on themselves. Kirschner’s work in Java was cut short by the Japanese invasion in 1942. He and wife Alice, a gifted violinist from Vienna, survived and provided considerable covert assistance to other prisoners using his scientific knowledge.{{Cite journal|date=1970|title=Leopold Kirschner|url=https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/4925987|journal=The New Zealand Medical Journal|volume=72|issue=463|pages=414–415|issn=0028-8446|pmid=4925987}}
= University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand =
Kirschner was recruited to the University of Otago Medical School by Dr – later Sir – Charles Hercus in 1946, to the Medical Research Council Microbiology Unit.{{Cite web|last=Magazine|first=Otago|title=Unsung scientist|url=https://www.otago.ac.nz/otagomagazine/issue47/features/otago696140.html|access-date=2020-08-08|website=www.otago.ac.nz|language=en-nz}} At the time of his arrival, New Zealand was considered to be free of leptospirosis, an assumption based in part on the absence of native terrestrial mammalian hosts.{{Cite journal|last1=Crump|first1=J. A.|last2=Murdoch|first2=D. R.|last3=Baker|first3=M. G.|date=2001|title=Emerging infectious diseases in an island ecosystem: the New Zealand perspective|journal=Emerging Infectious Diseases|volume=7|issue=5|pages=767–772|doi=10.3201/eid0705.017501|issn=1080-6040|pmc=2631882|pmid=11747690}} However, Kirschner noted that many mammalian species that could serve as hosts of Leptospira spp had been introduced to New Zealand, and that measures at ports to prevent rats being imported on ships were weak. Kirschner hypothesized that leptospirosis was very likely to be present and responsible for febrile illness among farmers in New Zealand. He established a leptospirosis reference laboratory at the University of Otago Medical School, confirming with Dr – later Sir – Edward G. Sayers, future Dean of the Otago Medical School, human leptospirosis in New Zealand for the first time in a sharemilker from Auckland in 1949. Then with Mr – later Professor – A. Neil Bruère the first livestock and occupational disease outbreak among dairy farm workers in Westland in 1951.{{Cite journal|last=Bruere|first=A.N.|date=1952|title=An association between leptospirosis in calves and man|journal=Aust Vet J|volume=28|issue=7|pages=174|doi=10.1111/j.1751-0813.1952.tb06500.x}} Kirschner promoted close collaboration between human and animal health experts, known today as the ‘One Health’ approach. Kirschner and colleagues went on to describe the major leptospirosis problem among dairy farmers in New Zealand; studied factors supporting and inhibiting Leptospira growth; and procedures for the culture, isolation, and identification Leptospira. Kirschner was an important early influence on the career of a generation of leptospirosis experts, including Professor Solomon Faine,{{Cite web|title=Solly Faine|url=http://www.antimicrobe.org/authors/s_faine.asp|access-date=2020-08-08|website=www.antimicrobe.org}} Monash University, and Professor Roger Marshall,{{Cite journal|last=Manktelow|first=B.W.|date=2001|title=Obituary: Roger Brereton Marshall|journal=N Z Vet J|volume=49|issue=6|pages=252–3|doi=10.1080/00480169.2001.36240|s2cid=53915127}} Massey University. Kirschner died in Dunedin on 23 November 1970 and is buried with wife Alice Kirschner at the Dunedin Southern Cemetery.{{Cite news|date=24 November 1970|title=Obituary: Dr. L. Kirchner was research pioneer|work=Otago Daily Times |url=https://www.odt.co.nz|access-date=8 August 2020}}
Honors and recognition
In 1992 Marshall and colleagues named the major pathogenic Leptospira species Leptospira kirschneri for Kirschner. A portrait of Kirschner is displayed in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, 8th Floor, Microbiology Building, University of Otago, and a plaque commemorates the site of his laboratory at room 304, Hercus Building, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.{{Cite web |last=Schutte |first=Kelsey |date=9 June 2022 |title=Portrait honours renowned scientist Dr Leopold Kirschner |url=https://www.otago.ac.nz/otagobulletin/news/otago841371.html |access-date=9 June 2022 |website=University of Otago}}
Dr. Kirschner is recognised in the naming of the [https://leptospirosis.otago.ac.nz Dr. Leopold Kirschner database] of Leptospira species and serovar isolations and detections from animals worldwide hosted by the University of Otago.{{Cite journal |last1=Hagedoorn |first1=Nienke N. |last2=Maze |first2=Michael J. |last3=Carugati |first3=Manuela |last4=Cash-Goldwasser |first4=Shama |last5=Allan |first5=Kathryn J. |last6=Chen |first6=Kevin |last7=Cossic |first7=Brieuc |last8=Demeter |first8=Elena |last9=Gallagher |first9=Sarah |last10=German |first10=Richard |last11=Galloway |first11=Renee L. |last12=Habuš |first12=Josipa |last13=Rubach |first13=Matthew P. |last14=Shiokawa |first14=Kanae |last15=Sulikhan |first15=Nadezhda |date=2024 |title=Global distribution of Leptospira serovar isolations and detections from animal host species: A systematic review and online database |journal=Tropical Medicine & International Health |language=en |volume=29 |issue=3 |pages=161–172 |doi=10.1111/tmi.13965 |issn=1360-2276|doi-access=free |pmid=38351504 }}
References
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Category:Academic staff of the University of Otago