Wanda Mejbaum-Katzenellenbogen

Wanda Lucyna Mejbaum-Katzenellenbogen (1 January 1914 in Lviv – 19 August 1986 in Wrocław) was a Polish biochemist, founder of the Wrocław school of biochemistry, and professor of medical sciences.

Biography

Early life and childhood Wanda Mejbaum was born in Lviv to , a historian, teacher, and activist of the National Democracy, and Maria Waleria (née Deryng, 1889–1962), a piano and singing teacher. She was their eldest child, with two brothers: Mestwin (1918–1926) and (1933–2002). In her hometown, she met her future husband, Jerzy Katzenellenbogen, with whom she studied at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Lviv (Jerzy Katzenellenbogen later became a psychiatrist). Jerzy, of Jewish origin, hid in the Mejbaum family home in Zamarstyniv during the German occupation of Lviv. In 1946, their daughter Ewa was born in Gliwice, followed by Maria in Wrocław. titled Micromethod for the Determination of Pentoses and its Application to Cozymase and Phosphocozymase, which she defended at the age of 25, earning her medical sciences doctorate on 27 June 1939. based on her doctoral thesis. From 1945 to 1988, this article became the eighth most cited (2,655 citations) scientific work in the biological sciences and the only Polish publication included in the so-called citation classics of Current Contents of Life Sciences.

Wrocław period Until 1946, she conducted scientific and educational activities in Lviv, then moved to Wrocław, where she worked for many years at the University of Wrocław and the later-established Wrocław Medical University. During this time, together with Irena Mochnacka, she assisted Tadeusz Baranowski in rebuilding and organizing the scientific community in Wrocław. From 1946 to 1958, Wanda Mejbaum-Katzenellenbogen worked at the Department of Physiological Chemistry at the Medical Faculty of the university and the Wrocław University of Science and Technology (from 1950, the faculty of the Medical University).

She served as a senior teaching assistant, then as an assistant professor, and in 1954, she obtained the position of docent, presenting a dissertation on the chemical composition and enzymes of smooth muscles.

Scientific contributions Wanda Mejbaum-Katzenellenbogen conducted her research primarily in the fields of biochemistry and biochemical analytics, mainly at the University of Wrocław. which enabled poorly equipped clinical analytical and scientific laboratories to work effectively. Another method she developed involved the concentration of proteins and glycoproteins using tannin and caffeine, facilitating the isolation of these macromolecules from bodily fluids. Mejbaum-Katzenellenbogen also studied the endogenous function of orosomucoid in the serum of healthy and sick individuals, which allowed for the discovery of its interactions with antibodies. She initiated and developed research on natural tannins in Wrocław, proposing that they could immobilize active proteins and other macromolecules in vivo. and, together with her husband, translated Harold Harper's textbook on physiological chemistry into Polish. Throughout her scientific and educational career, she trained over 150 biochemistry graduates, 35 doctors, and 8 habilitated doctors, most of whom later became professors.

Awards and honors For her scientific, educational, and organizational activities, she received numerous state honors, including the Golden Cross of Merit (1959), the 15th Anniversary Badge of the Liberation of Lower Silesia (1960), the (1969), the Knight's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta (1973), the Medal of the 10th Anniversary of People's Poland (1975), the Medal of the Commission of National Education (1975), and she was also awarded the (1982).