- A dictionary of medical eponyms

Ernst Witebsky

Born  1901
Died  1969

Related eponyms

German-American immunologist, born September 3, 1901, Frankfurt am Main; died 1969.

Biography of Ernst Witebsky

Ernst Witebsky studied in Frankfurt am Main as well as in Heidelberg and Berlin, receiving his doctorate at Heidelberg in 1925. In 1929 he was habilitated for serology and immunity research at Heidelberg, where he subsequently worked as assistant in the university institute for experimental cancer research.

When the Nazis came to power, Witebsky worked under Hans Sachs in the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institute for medical research. Both Hans Sachs and his collaborators Ernst Witebsky and Alfred Klopstock, all Jewish, were forced to resign and subsequently emigrated. Witebsky came to the State University of New York at Buffalo, where he made a brilliant career. Here the B antigen found in human blood was isolated by Witebsky and Niels Klendshoj.

Bibliography

  • Biologische Spezifität.
    Handbuch der normalen und pathologischen Physiologie, volume 13; Berlin, 1929.

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