Domagk, Gerhard

Domagk, Gerhard (gĕr`härt dō`mäk), 1895–1964, German chemist and pathologist. A teacher successively at the universities of Greifswald and Münster, he became (1927) director of research at the I. G. Farbenindustrie laboratory at Wuppertal. Because of a Nazi decree he was obliged to decline the 1939 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. In 1947 he received a gold medal in lieu of the prize money. The award was made for his discovery of the efficacy of prontosil, the forerunner of the sulfa drugs, in treating streptococcal infections.

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Domagk, Gerhard

(born Oct. 30, 1895, Lagow, Brandenburg, Ger.—died April 24, 1964, Burgberg, near Königsfeld, W.Ger.) German bacteriologist and pathologist. While director of the Bayer Laboratory for Experimental Pathology and Bacteriology, Domagk noticed the antibacterial action of a dye, Prontosil red, against streptococcal infection in mice. Found to be an effective treatment in humans, Prontosil became the first sulfonamide drug. Awarded a Nobel Prize in 1939, Domagk was unable to accept it at the time because of Nazi policy. He also was active in research on tuberculosis and cancer.

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Domagk, Gerhard 

Born Oct. 30, 1895, in Lagow, Brandenburg; died Apr. 24, 1964, in Kónigsfeld, Schwartzwald. German pathologist and microbiologist.

Domagk graduated in 1921 from the medical school of the University of Kiel. He became a professor of general pathology and pathological anatomy in Münster in 1928. In 1932 he began work on the chemotherapy of bacterial infections. He lived in the Federal Republic of Germany after 1949. In 1934, Domagk created domigon (an acridine derivative), the first effective drug for the treatment of gonorrhea, and introduced compounds of the sulfanilamide group to the treatment of many infectious diseases. He also developed a number of compounds for the chemotherapy of tuberculosis and tumors. Domagk was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1939.

WORKS

Pathologische Anatomie und Chemotherapie der Infektsionskrankheiten. Stuttgart, 1947. (Bibliography.)