Peter Hermann Stillmark (22 July 1860,
Penza
Penza (, ) is the largest types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and administrative center of Penza Oblast, Russia. It is located on the Sura (river), Sura River, southeast of Moscow. As of the 2010 Russian census, 2010 Census, Penza had ...
,
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...
– 23 June 1923,
Pärnu
Pärnu () is the fourth-largest city in Estonia. Situated in southwest Estonia, Pärnu is located south of the Estonian capital, Tallinn, and west of Estonia's second-largest city, Tartu. The city sits off the coast of Pärnu Bay, an inlet of ...
,
Estonia
Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...
) was a
Baltic-German microbiologist.
In 1888 at the
University in Dorpat, now
Tartu
Tartu is the second largest city in Estonia after Tallinn. Tartu has a population of 97,759 (as of 2024). It is southeast of Tallinn and 245 kilometres (152 miles) northeast of Riga, Latvia. Tartu lies on the Emajõgi river, which connects the ...
in
Estonia
Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...
under Professor
Rudolf Kobert's supervision, he completed his doctoral thesis ''Über Ricin, ein giftiges Ferment aus den Samen von ''Ricinus comm.'' L. und einigen anderen Euphorbiaceen'', which is a description of the isolation of
ricin
Ricin ( ) is a lectin (a carbohydrate-binding protein) and a highly potent toxin produced in the seeds of the castor oil plant, ''Ricinus communis''. The median lethal dose (LD50) of ricin for mice is around 22 micrograms per kilogram of body ...
, a
poisonous protein component from
castor beans.
That event is internationally recognized as the discovery of a class of carbohydrate-binding proteins called
lectin
Lectins are carbohydrate-binding proteins that are highly specific for sugar Moiety (chemistry), groups that are part of other molecules, so cause agglutination (biology), agglutination of particular cells or precipitation of glycoconjugates an ...
s and the birth of a new branch of science called
lectin
Lectins are carbohydrate-binding proteins that are highly specific for sugar Moiety (chemistry), groups that are part of other molecules, so cause agglutination (biology), agglutination of particular cells or precipitation of glycoconjugates an ...
ology.
In 1988 the University of Tartu crafted a medal to commemorate the centennial of Stillmark’s discovery. It was awarded to Samuel Barondes in September 1990 at the 12th meeting of the International Lectin Society (Interlec-12) in Davis California for his pioneering studies of the multiple biological functions of
galectins, a large family of
lectin
Lectins are carbohydrate-binding proteins that are highly specific for sugar Moiety (chemistry), groups that are part of other molecules, so cause agglutination (biology), agglutination of particular cells or precipitation of glycoconjugates an ...
s found in many animals, including humans.
References
''This article incorporates language fro
Herrmann Stillmark which is released under
GFDL
The GNU Free Documentation License (GNU FDL or GFDL) is a copyleft license for free documentation, designed by the Free Software Foundation (FSF) for the GNU Project. It is similar to the GNU General Public License, giving readers the rights ...
.''
1860 births
1923 deaths
Baltic-German people from the Russian Empire
Microbiologists from the Russian Empire
{{biochemist-stub