Schack August Steenberg Krogh
(15 November 1874 – 13 September 1949) was a
Danish professor at the department of
zoophysiology at the
University of Copenhagen
The University of Copenhagen ( da, Københavns Universitet, KU) is a prestigious public university, public research university in Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1479, the University of Copenhagen is the second-oldest university in ...
from 1916 to 1945. He contributed a number of fundamental discoveries within several fields of
physiology
Physiology (; ) is the scientific study of functions and mechanisms in a living system. As a sub-discipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ systems, individual organs, cells, and biomolecules carry out the chemic ...
, and is famous for developing the
Krogh Principle.
In 1920 August Krogh was awarded the
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded yearly by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute for outstanding discoveries in physiology or medicine. The Nobel Prize is not a single prize, but five separate prizes that, accordi ...
for the discovery of the mechanism of regulation of the
capillaries
A capillary is a small blood vessel from 5 to 10 micrometres (μm) in diameter. Capillaries are composed of only the tunica intima, consisting of a thin wall of simple squamous endothelial cells. They are the smallest blood vessels in the body: ...
in skeletal
muscle
Skeletal muscles (commonly referred to as muscles) are organs of the vertebrate muscular system and typically are attached by tendons to bones of a skeleton. The muscle cells of skeletal muscles are much longer than in the other types of mus ...
. Krogh was first to describe the adaptation of blood perfusion in muscle and other organs according to demands through opening and closing the
arteriole
An arteriole is a small-diameter blood vessel in the microcirculation that extends and branches out from an artery and leads to capillaries.
Arterioles have muscular walls (usually only one to two layers of smooth muscle cells) and are the primar ...
s and
capillaries
A capillary is a small blood vessel from 5 to 10 micrometres (μm) in diameter. Capillaries are composed of only the tunica intima, consisting of a thin wall of simple squamous endothelial cells. They are the smallest blood vessels in the body: ...
.
[
Besides his contributions to medicine, Krogh was also one of the founders of what is today the ]Novo Nordisk
Novo Nordisk A/S is a Danish multinational pharmaceutical company headquartered in Bagsværd, Denmark, with production facilities in nine countries, and affiliates or offices in five countries. Novo Nordisk is controlled by majority shareholder ...
company.
Life
He was born in Grenaa
Grenaa (or Grenå) is a Danish town and seaport on the east coast of the Jutlandic peninsula. Tourism, education and commerce are important sectors in the economy of Grenaa. It is the only larger town on Djursland. Grenaa is the municipal seat, a ...
on the peninsula of Djursland
Djursland () is a 44 km × 33 km hilly lowland peninsula in Denmark at the entrance to the Baltic Sea, between Denmark and Sweden in Northern Europe. Djursland protrudes into the Kattegat sea, as part of the larger peninsula of Jutland, ...
in Denmark
)
, song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast")
, song_type = National and royal anthem
, image_map = EU-Denmark.svg
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark
, establish ...
, the son of Viggo Krogh, a shipbuilder. His mother was a Romni. He was educated at the Aarhus Katedralskole
Aarhus Katedralskole is a cathedral school, an institution of secondary education, a Danish Gymnasium and a listed building in Aarhus, Denmark. The school is situated in the neighborhood Midtbyen, in the Latin Quarter, bounded by the streets Me ...
in Aarhus
Aarhus (, , ; officially spelled Århus from 1948 until 1 January 2011) is the second-largest city in Denmark and the seat of Aarhus Municipality. It is located on the eastern shore of Jutland in the Kattegat sea and approximately northwe ...
. He attended the University of Copenhagen
The University of Copenhagen ( da, Københavns Universitet, KU) is a prestigious public university, public research university in Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1479, the University of Copenhagen is the second-oldest university in ...
graduating MSc in 1899 and gaining a doctorate PhD in 1903.
Krogh was a pioneer in comparative physiology
Comparative physiology is a subdiscipline of physiology that studies and exploits the diversity of functional characteristics of various kinds of organisms. It is closely related to evolutionary physiology and environmental physiology. Many uni ...
. He wrote his thesis on the respiration through the skin and lungs in frog
A frog is any member of a diverse and largely Carnivore, carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order (biology), order Anura (ανοὐρά, literally ''without tail'' in Ancient Greek). The oldest fossil "proto-f ...
s: ''Respiratory Exchange of Animals'', 1915. Later Krogh took on studies of water and electrolyte homeostasis
In biology, homeostasis ( British also homoeostasis) (/hɒmɪə(ʊ)ˈsteɪsɪs/) is the state of steady internal, physical, and chemical conditions maintained by living systems. This is the condition of optimal functioning for the organism and ...
of aquatic animals and he published the books: ''Osmotic Regulation'' (1939) and ''Comparative Physiology of Respiratory Mechanisms'' (1941). He contributed more than 200 research articles in international journals. He was a constructor of scientific instruments of which several had considerable practical importance, such as the spirometer
A spirometer is an apparatus for measuring the volume of air inspired and expired by the lungs. A spirometer measures ventilation, the movement of air into and out of the lungs. The spirogram will identify two different types of abnormal ventilat ...
and the apparatus for measuring basal metabolic rate
Basal metabolic rate (BMR) is the rate of energy expenditure per unit time by endothermic animals at rest. It is reported in energy units per unit time ranging from watt (joule/second) to ml O2/min or joule per hour per kg body mass J/(h·kg). P ...
.
Krogh began lecturing in the University of Copenhagen
The University of Copenhagen ( da, Københavns Universitet, KU) is a prestigious public university, public research university in Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1479, the University of Copenhagen is the second-oldest university in ...
in 1908 and in 1916 was promoted to full professor, becoming the head of the first laboratory for animal physiology
Physiology (; ) is the scientific study of functions and mechanisms in a living system. As a sub-discipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ systems, individual organs, cells, and biomolecules carry out the chemic ...
(zoophysiology) at the university.
Krogh and his wife Marie brought insulin
Insulin (, from Latin ''insula'', 'island') is a peptide hormone produced by beta cells of the pancreatic islets encoded in humans by the ''INS'' gene. It is considered to be the main anabolic hormone of the body. It regulates the metabolism ...
to Denmark
)
, song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast")
, song_type = National and royal anthem
, image_map = EU-Denmark.svg
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark
, establish ...
shortly after its discovery in 1922 by Frederick Banting
Sir Frederick Grant Banting (November 14, 1891 – February 21, 1941) was a Canadian medical scientist, physician, painter, and Nobel laureate noted as the co-discoverer of insulin and its therapeutic potential.
In 1923, Banting and Joh ...
and Charles Best. Marie, a doctor who had patients with type 1 diabetes
Type 1 diabetes (T1D), formerly known as juvenile diabetes, is an autoimmune disease that originates when cells that make insulin (beta cells) are destroyed by the immune system. Insulin is a hormone required for the cells to use blood sugar f ...
, was herself suffering from type 2 diabetes
Type 2 diabetes, formerly known as adult-onset diabetes, is a form of diabetes mellitus that is characterized by high blood sugar, insulin resistance, and relative lack of insulin. Common symptoms include increased thirst, frequent urinatio ...
and was naturally very interested in the disease. Together with doctor Hans Christian Hagedorn, August and Marie Krogh founded Nordisk Insulinlaboratorium
Novo Nordisk A/S is a Danish multinational pharmaceutical company headquartered in Bagsværd, Denmark, with production facilities in nine countries, and affiliates or offices in five countries. Novo Nordisk is controlled by majority shareholder ...
, where Krogh made decisive contributions to establishing a Danish production of insulin by ethanol
Ethanol (abbr. EtOH; also called ethyl alcohol, grain alcohol, drinking alcohol, or simply alcohol) is an organic compound. It is an alcohol with the chemical formula . Its formula can be also written as or (an ethyl group linked to a ...
extraction of the hormone from the pancreatic glands of pigs.
In the 1930s, Krogh worked with two other Nobel prizewinners, the radiochemist George de Hevesy
George Charles de Hevesy (born György Bischitz; hu, Hevesy György Károly; german: Georg Karl von Hevesy; 1 August 1885 – 5 July 1966) was a Hungarian radiochemist and Nobel Prize in Chemistry laureate, recognized in 1943 for his key rol ...
and the physicist Niels Bohr
Niels Henrik David Bohr (; 7 October 1885 – 18 November 1962) was a Danish physicist who made foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum theory, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922 ...
on the permeability of membranes to heavy water and radioactive isotope
Isotopes are two or more types of atoms that have the same atomic number (number of protons in their nuclei) and position in the periodic table (and hence belong to the same chemical element), and that differ in nucleon numbers ( mass num ...
s, and together, they managed to obtain Denmark's first cyclotron
A cyclotron is a type of particle accelerator invented by Ernest O. Lawrence in 1929–1930 at the University of California, Berkeley, and patented in 1932. Lawrence, Ernest O. ''Method and apparatus for the acceleration of ions'', filed: Jan ...
for experiments on animal and plant physiology as well as in dental and medical work.[
]
Publications
*''The Respiratory Exchange of Animals and Man'' (1916)
*''Osmotic Regulation in Aquatic Animals'' (1939)
*''The Comparative Physiology of Respiratory Mechanisms'' (1941)
Family
He married Marie Krogh
Marie Krogh, née Jørgensen (25 December 1874 – 25 March 1943), was a Danish physician, physiologist and nutritionist.
Life and work
Birte Marie Krogh was born on 25 December 1874 in Vosegaard, Denmark, one of only four of nine children i ...
(née Jørgensen, 1874–1943) in 1905. She was a renowned scientist in her own right and much of August Krogh's work was carried out in close collaboration with her.
August and Marie had four children, the youngest of whom, Bodil, was born in 1918. She too was a physiologist, and became the first woman president of the American Physiological Society
The American Physiological Society is a non-profit professional society for physiologists. It has nearly 10,000 members, most of whom hold doctoral degrees in medicine, physiology or other health professions. Its mission is to support research an ...
in 1975. Bodil married another eminent physiologist, Knut Schmidt-Nielsen Knut Schmidt-Nielsen (September 24, 1915 – January 25, 2007) was a prominent figure in the field of comparative physiology and Professor of Physiology Emeritus at Duke University.
Background
Born in Trondheim, Norway. He was educated in Oslo a ...
.
Legacy
Torkel Weis-Fogh
Torkel Weis-Fogh (25 March 1922 – 13 November 1975) was a Danish zoologist and Professor at the University of Cambridge and the University of Copenhagen. He is best known for his contributions to the understanding of insect flight, especially t ...
, an eminent pioneer on the study of insect flight
Insects are the only group of invertebrates that have evolved wings and flight. Insects first flew in the Carboniferous, some 350 to 400 million years ago, making them the first animals to evolve flight. Wings may have evolved from appenda ...
, was a student of August Krogh's. Together they wrote a classic paper on that subject in 1951.
Krogh's name is preserved in two items now named for him:
* Krogh length, the distance between capillaries
A capillary is a small blood vessel from 5 to 10 micrometres (μm) in diameter. Capillaries are composed of only the tunica intima, consisting of a thin wall of simple squamous endothelial cells. They are the smallest blood vessels in the body: ...
which nutrients diffuse
Diffusion is the net movement of anything (for example, atoms, ions, molecules, energy) generally from a region of higher concentration to a region of lower concentration. Diffusion is driven by a gradient in Gibbs free energy or chemical p ...
to, based on cellular consumption of the nutrients.
* Krogh's principle
Krogh's principle states that "for such a large number of problems there will be some animal of choice, or a few such animals, on which it can be most conveniently studied." This concept is central to those disciplines of biology that rely on the ...
, that "for... a large number of problems there will be some animal of choice, or a few such animals, on which it can be most conveniently studied."[Bernard, Claude. ''Introduction à l'étude de la médecine expérimentale'', J.B. Baillière et Fils, Libraires de L'Académie Impériale de Médecine, 1865. pp. 400]
Further reading
*
*
*
*
*
*
References
External links
* including the Nobel Lecture on December 11, 1920 ''A Contribution to the Physiology of the Capillaries''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Krogh, August
1874 births
1949 deaths
Nobel laureates in Physiology or Medicine
Danish Nobel laureates
Danish physiologists
Foreign Members of the Royal Society
Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences
People from Norddjurs Municipality