Tadeus Reichstein—Work on Hormones of the Adrenal Glands

Abstract

From the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN (M.A.S., R.A.K.); and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA (D.P.S.). T he Polish-Swiss biochemist Tadeus Reichstein shared the 1950 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine with 2 American medical scientists, Philip S. Hench (1896-1965) and Edward C. Kendall (18861972), for discoveries concerning the structure and effects of hormones of the adrenal cortex. Reichstein’s research on steroids, particularly on hormones of the adrenal cortex, paralleled that of Kendall in the United States. Reichstein’s “substance F,” described and named by him in 1936, proved to be identical to Kendall’s “compound E,” or cortisone. Hench was credited with the clinical application of Kendall’s and Reichstein’s discoveries. The work of the 3 laureates proved useful in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and many varieties of inflammatory disease. Reichstein, the eldest of 5 sons, was born on July 20, 1897, in Wloclawek, Poland (about 80 miles northwest of Warsaw). Reichstein spent the first 8 years of his life in Kiev, Ukraine (where his father worked as an engineer), and then attended a private boarding school in Jena, Germany. In early 1905, the familymoved to Berlin (Germany) and then later in 1905 to Zurich (Switzerland), where they settled permanently and acquired Swiss citizenship in 1914. In 1914, Reichstein, who had been tutored privately, entered the Oberrealschule (a junior technical school) in Zurich and graduated in 1916, after which he enrolled in the Eidgenossische Technische Hochschule (State Technical College [ETH]) and received a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering in 1920. After receiving his bachelor’s degree, Reichstein spent 1 year as an industrial chemist in a flashlight factory, after which he returned to the ETH for graduate study. In 1922, he was awarded a PhD degree in organic chemistry. After receiving his doctorate, Reichstein worked as an assistant to Herman Staudinger (18811965), who won the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1953. Their work involved the isolation