Vom Nobody zum Nobelpreisträger?

Who is who in cardiovascular research? What a review of Nobel Prize nominations reveals about scientific trends

Background

Since 1901, at least 15 scholars who contributed to cardiovascular research have received a Nobel prize in physiology or medicine.

Methods

Using the Nobel nomination database (nobelprize.org), which contains 5950 nominations in the accessible period from 1901 to 1953 in physiology or medicine, we listed all international nominees who contributed to cardiovascular research. We subsequently collected nomination letters and jury reports of the prime candidates from the archive of the Nobel Committee in Sweden to identify shortlisted candidates.

Results

The five most frequently nominated researchers with cardiovascular connections from 1901 to 1953 were, in descending order, the surgeon René Leriche (1879–1955) (FR) with a total of 79 nominations, the physiologist and 1924 Nobel laureate Willem Einthoven (1860–1927) (NL) (31 nominations), the surgeon Alfred Blalock (1899–1964) (US) (29 nominations), the pharmacologist and 1936 Nobel laureate Otto Loewi (1873–1961) (DE, AT, US) (27 nominations) and the paediatric cardiologist Helen Taussig (1898–1986) (US) (24 nominations). The research of these scholars merely hints at the width of topics brought up by nominators ranging from the physiological and pathological basics to the diagnosis and (surgical) interventions of diseases such as heart malformation or hypertension.

Conclusion

We argue that an analysis of Nobel Prize nominations can reconstruct important scientific trends within cardiovascular research during the first half of the twentieth century.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00392-021-01813-2.

[Medicine and literature: "Nobel Prize. No jokes please!" : Gottfried Benn and his nominations for the Nobel Prize in Literature]

In the early 1950s, the German poet and physician Gottfried Benn was repeatedly nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Drawing on sources from the archive of the Swedish Academy in Stockholm, this essay discusses how Benn was portrayed as a Nobel nominee. His sponsors highlighted not only why he was a remarkable author, but also his national socialist links during the 1930s. The study is part of a new interdisciplinary project that analyses nominations and committee reports for physician and natural scientist candidates for the Nobel Prize in Literature from 1901 to 1970.

Right Heart Catheterization-Background, Physiological Basics, and Clinical Implications

The idea of right heart catheterization (RHC) grew in the milieu of modern thinking about the cardiovascular system, influenced by the experiments of William Harvey, which were inspired by the treatises of Greek philosophers like Aristotle and Gallen, who made significant contributions to the subject. RHC was first discovered in the eighteenth century by William Hale and was subsequently systematically improved by outstanding experiments in the field of physiology, led by Cournand and Dickinson Richards, which finally resulted in the implementation of pulmonary artery catheters (PAC) into clinical practice by Jeremy Swan and William Ganz in the early 1970s. Despite its premature euphoric reception, some further analysis seemed not to share the early enthusiasm as far as the safety and effectiveness issues were concerned. Nonetheless, RHC kept its significant role in the diagnosis, prognostic evaluation, and decision-making of pulmonary hypertension and heart failure patients. Its role in the treatment of end-stage heart failure seems not to be fully understood, although it is promising. PAC-guided optimization of the treatment of patients with ventricular assist devices and its beneficial introduction into clinical practice remains a challenge for the near future.

["Why visit a medical congress?" : Knowledge transfer between Germany and Sweden using the example of the 1929 DGU meeting in Munich]

Drawing on contemporary publications in German and Swedish/Scandinavian journals and biographies as well as conference proceedings of the German Society of Urology (DGU), this paper examines the Swedish impressions of the 1929 DGU meeting in Munich. It focusses on why the Swedish delegates visited the congress and how they evaluated their congress experiences for their Scandinavian peers. Finally, the article shows to what extent a knowledge transfer from the DGU Congress to Sweden took place.

[The 69th Congress-urologists nominated for the Nobel Prize : Not everyone got a prize: four biographical sketches]

Our research group has reconstructed why the board certified urologists Werner Forssmann (1904-1979) and Charles Huggins (1901-1997) received the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine (1956, and 1966, respectively). But the history of "Urology and the Nobel Prize" is in fact more multifaceted than the success stories of these two laureates suggest. James Israel (1848-1926), Berlin, Félix Guyon (1831-1920), Paris, Peter J. Freyer (1852-1921), London and Edwin Beer (1876-1938), New York were nominated for the award during the first three decades of the 20th century. Their candidacies mirror trends among leading urologists during the time when urology became a specialty in its own right.

Nobel Prize nominees and the rise of urology in Europe around 1900

PURPOSE

Recent historical research has reconstructed the roads leading to the Nobel Prize for the trained urologists Werner Forssmann (1904-1979) in 1956 and Charles Huggins (1901-1997) in 1966. However, the story of urology and the Nobel Prize does not start and end with the laureates. Taking James Israel (1848-1926), Félix Guyon (1831-1920), and Peter J Freyer (1852-1921) as examples, this paper shows that pioneers in urology were in fact runners-up for the award much earlier.

METHODS

The study is based on an analysis of original files in the Nobel Prize archive in Stockholm, scientific publications of the early twentieth century, and secondary literature.

RESULT AND CONCLUSION

We argue that Israel's, Guyon's, and Freyer's candidacies reflect not only scientific trends and controversies in urology at the turn of twentieth century, but that the development of the specialty itself was reflected in nominations of physicians working on problems of the genito-urinary system.

Remembering Charles B. Huggins' Nobel Prize for Hormonal Treatment of Prostatic Cancer at its 50th Anniversary

Charles B. Huggins received the Nobel Prize in 1966. Based on archival sources from the Nobel archive we have found that nominators emphasised the practical therapeutic applications of his discoveries that were showing 25 yr after his key publications.

Nobel Prize for Physical Therapy? Rise, Fall, and Revival of Medico-Mechanical Institutes

This historical vignette explores the considerations of the Nobel Prize Committee for Physiology or Medicine by vetting the Nobel Prize chances of Dr Gustaf Zander (1835-1920). His way to stardom started 150 years ago when he began mechanizing the passive and active movements that physical therapists manually used to treat diseases. A glance at his machines shows that they parallel surprisingly well what can be found in modern fitness studios. By combining files from the Nobel Prize Archive and sources from the first physical therapists, this vignette pieces together why Zander was considered one of the best candidates for the Nobel Prize in 1916. By providing this glimpse of history, questions about the origin of physical therapy concepts and the profession of the physical therapist are raised.