Friedrich Miescher

Friedrich Miescher came from a scientific family and was the oldest of 5 sons, and was known within his family as Fritz. Miescher's father and his uncle held the chair of anatomy at the University of Basel until Miescher's father resigned in 1850. Friedrich grew up in combined household with his Uncle, Wilhelm His. The combined household's were credited with creating an intellectual stimulus for everyone. As a boy, Miescher was shy but intelligent. He had an interest in music as his father performed publicly. Miescher studied medicine at Basel, and in the summer of 1865, he worked for the organic chemist Adolf Strecker at the University of Göttingen. However, Miescher's studies were interrupted for the year when he contracted typhoid fever, leaving him hearing-impaired. Miescher received his MD in 1868. ==Career==

Miescher felt that his partial deafness would be a disadvantage as a doctor, so he turned to physiological chemistry. Miescher originally wanted to study lymphocytes, but was encouraged by Felix Hoppe-Seyler to study neutrophils. Miescher was interested in studying the chemistry of the nucleus. Lymphocytes were difficult to obtain in sufficient numbers to study, while neutrophils were known to be one of the main and first components in pus and could be obtained from bandages at the nearby hospital. However, the problem was washing the cells off the bandages without damaging them. Miescher found that this contained phosphorus and nitrogen, but not sulfur. Hoppe-Seyler repeated all of Miescher's research himself before publishing it in his journal because one of his earlier student's false claims. It later found use, as protamine sulfate, in the stabilization of insulin (NPH insulin) and also as a reversal agent for the anticoagulant medicine heparin. Miescher and his students researched much nucleic acid chemistry, but its function remained unknown. However, Miescher's discovery played an important part in the identification of nucleic acids as the carriers of inheritance. The importance of his discovery was not apparent until Albrecht Kossel (a German physiologist specializing in the physiological chemistry of the cell and its nucleus and of proteins) researched the chemical structure of nuclein. Miescher is also known for demonstrating that carbon dioxide concentrations in blood regulate breathing. ==Personal life==

Miescher was married to Maria Anna Rüsch on March 21, 1878. According to Miescher's own student Fritz Suter, Miescher missed his own wedding and was found in his laboratory. Miescher had 3 children with Rüsch all of which died at a young age. The Miescher family moved to their home on 21 Augustinergasse sometime after 1878 and before 1887. Due to Miescher's lack of sleep, overwork, and cold conditions of his laboratory, he was susceptible to illness and contracted peurisy in 1885. Miescher neglected his condition and continued to work long hours, and in 1894 he contracted tuberculosis. He then had to retire and moved to a sanatorium in Davos in the Swiss Alps. He died of tuberculosis in 1895 at the age of 51. In Miescher's obituary in the British Medical journal, his wife and children are not mentioned, showing Miescher's dedication to his work. ==Legacy==

As of 2008, two laboratories have been named after Miescher: == See also ==