Today in Technology History

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April 24

Gerhard Domagk (1895-1964)The life of Gerhard Domagk (pronounced DOH-mahk), discoverer of an important category of medication, was intimately shaped by both world wars.

Domagk, a German, was born in 1895. His college studies were interrupted by World War I; he volunteered and was wounded. Domagk later served in military hospitals. He completed his studies after the war, obtaining a medical degree in 1921.

While working as a college professor, Domagk was hired by a major German chemical and pharmaceutical firm. He studied the various chemical dyes manufactured by the company in the hopes that some might be useful as drugs.

Domagk discovered that one reddish dye -- marketed under the name Prontosil -- could destroy or prevent certain infections in mice. Although he was reticent to test it in humans, he had no other recourse after his daughter became accidentally infected. She recovered after treatment with Prontosil.

Soon, the valuable portion of the Prontosil dye was isolated, and an entire class of drugs -- the "sulfa" drugs, the first antibiotics -- was born.

For his discovery, the Nobel committee awarded Domagk the 1939 Nobel Prize for medicine. However, once again, war interfered with his life: Hitler forbade Germans to accept Nobels. (This was because the Nobel committee in 1935 had awarded the Peace Prize to a man in a concentration camp.) The Gestapo arrested Domagk and briefly threw him in jail.

After World War II, Domagk was finally free to finally accept his prize, which he did in 1947. He died on April 24, 1964, at the age of sixty-eight.

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