Otto Neubauer (8 April 1874 – 24 November 1957) was a Bohemia-born physician and biochemist who was responsible for several clinical diagnostic innovations including the Neubauer-Fischer test to evaluate kidney function and the Neubauer counting chamber.

Life and work

Neubauer was born in Karlsbad (then in Bohemia) to physician Wolfgang and Hedwig Arnstein née Sadler. In 1892 he passed the examination for qualifying admission to a university after studying at the humanistic gymnasium of Chomutov. He then went to the German University in Prague he received a medical degree in 1898 and became interested in physiological chemistry through the influence of Karl H. Huppert. He then joined as an assistant to

Friedrich von Müller Friedrich von Müller (17 September 1858, Augsburg – 18 November 1941, Munich) was a German physician remembered for describing Müller's sign, and Leptospirosis. He was the son of the head of the medical department in the hospital in Augsbu ...

at Basel. He moved to Munich in 1902. In 1908 he joined the

University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich, LMU or LMU Munich; ) is a public university, public research university in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Originally established as the University of Ingolstadt in 1472 by Duke ...

and served in a reserve hospital during

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. His major work in this period was on amino acid metabolism in human health and disease. Neubauer and Konrad Fromherz examined the role of pyruvic acid in fermentation. He innovated several clinical diagnostics including tests of peptolytic activity. Gastric juice incubated with glycyl-tryptophan for twenty four hours tested with bromine to see if free tryptophan causes a rose-violet colour was used as an indication of stomach carcinoma. In 1918 he became head physician at Schwabinger Hospital, working there until his dismissal by the Nazi government in June 1933 as a person of Jewish ancestry. In 1920 he developed a blood pressure measuring device and still later a measuring slide (known as a Neubauer slide or Neubauer counting chamber) for counting cells under a microscope. With assistance and support from The Society for the Protection of Science and Learning, he emigrated to England in 1939 along with his wife Lilly Caroline (1876-1962, who was married to composer Fritz Cassirer until his death) and worked in Oxford for the remainder of his life. His contributions included studies on arsenic and other chemicals as carcinogens. Neubauer's students included Siegfried Thannhauser, Rudolf Schindler, and Konrad Dobriner.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Neubauer, Otto 1874 births 1957 deaths Jewish scientists Biochemists Academic staff of the Munich University of Applied Sciences Jews who emigrated to escape Nazism Physicians from Austria-Hungary