Bernhard Naunyn

Bernhard Naunyn (September 2, 1839- July 26 1925) was German pathologist who was born in Berlin. After receiving his degree at the University of Berlin in 1863, he became an assistant to pathologist Friedrich Theodor von Frerichs (1819-1885). Afterwards he was the head of medical clinics in Dorpat (1869-1871), Bern (1871-1872), Konigsberg (1872-1888), and Strassburg (1888-1904).

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Naunyn is remembered for his work in experimental pathology, particularly metabolic pathology; also referred to as xenobiotic metabolism. It was during the time he spent working at Frerich's clinic in Berlin that he became interested in the metabolic pathology regarding the liver, pancreas and other internal organs. In his studies of the fermentation processes of the stomach, he noticed the "counter-fermentation" properties of benzene. He discovered that that the human organism excreted phenol after it had received benzene. This finding showed that the body had chemical capabilities that were not possible for chemists to achieve in a traditional laboratory.

Naunyn also made contributions in his research of diabetes and cholelithiasis, and in 1898 published an important treatise on diabetes titled Der Diabetes Melitus. With pharmacologist Oswald Schmiedeberg (1838-1921) and pathologist Edwin Klebs (1834-1913) he founded Archiv für experimentelle Pathologie und Pharmakologie, and in 1896 with surgeon Jan Mikulicz-Radecki (1850-1905) he founded Mitteilungen aus dem Grenzgebieten der Medizin und Chirurgie. With Oskar Minkowski (1858-1931) he theorized that bile pigment formation was a function of liver cells alone, however this theory was later disproved by John William McNee in 1913.

A famous student of Naunyn's was Otto Loewi (1873-1961} who was the winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1936.

External Site

• History of Xenobiotic Metabolism