Background
Casimir Funk was born on February 23, 1884 in Warsaw, Poland; the son of Gustawa Zysan and Jacques Funk.
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1936
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Casimir Funk was born on February 23, 1884 in Warsaw, Poland; the son of Gustawa Zysan and Jacques Funk.
From 1894 to 1900 C. Funk studied at Warsaw Gymnasium. He studied biology under Robert Chodat at the University of Geneva in Switzerland, then transferred to the University of Bern, where he studied chemistry under Carl Friedheim and Stanislaw Kostanecki. In 1904, C. Funk earned his Doctor of Philosophy degree after completing his dissertation on how to prepare two stilbene dyes, Brasilin and H, matoxylin. He then went to the Pasteur Institute in Paris, where he studied organic bases and amino acids under Gabriel Bertrand.
In 1906, C. Funk held an unpaid position at the University of Berlin. There he worked in the laboratory of Emil Fischer. Under Fischer's assistant, Emil Abderhalden, C. Funk experimented with protein metabolism. A year later, C. Funk began a paid position as a biochemist at the Municipal Hospital in Wiesbaden, Germany. There, he found that when dogs were fed purified proteins they lost weight, but when they were fed horse meat and powdered milk, they gained weight. Then C. Funk transferred to the pediatric clinic at the University of Berlin. In 1910, C. Funk left Germany and became a scholar at the Lister Institute of Preventative Medicine in London, England. In 1911 he published his first paper in English, on dihydroxyphenylalanine. Earlier work in how deficiencies in diet could cause health problems were the basis for Funk's work. In 1873, research had shown that dogs did not thrive on a diet of washed meat and that pigeons that ate synthetic food developed symptoms of disease. In 1912, C. Funk published his paper "Vitamines". In 1913, C. Funk began working at the London Cancer Hospital Research Institute. He published his first book "Die Vitamine".
In 1915 during World War I, C. Funk decided to leave England and in 1916 he accepted a position with Calco Company in Bound Brook, New Jersey. A year later, in 1917, he started working for the pharmaceutical firm Metz and Company in New York City. From 1918 to 1923, he also held an academic position at Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons, where he worked on the synthesis of adrenaline.
C. Funk became a United States citizen in 1920. In 1923, sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation, he returned to Poland and worked as chief of the Department of Biochemistry at the State Institute of Hygiene. While there, he increased the quality of insulin produced in the laboratory. In 1928, because of political unrest in Poland, he accepted a part-time position with Gr, my, a pharmaceutical house in Paris. There he founded Casa Biochemica, a private laboratory that produced biochemical products. From 1927 to 1936, C. Funk also worked as a biochemist for the Rousell Company. In 1936, C. Funk published "Vitamin and Mineral Therapy".
After Germany invaded Poland in 1939, C. Funk returned to New York and began working for the United States Vitamin Corporation, a company for which he had previously worked and which owned the copyright to Vitamin and Mineral Therapy. In 1947, with the support of the United States Vitamin Corporation, C. Funk became head of the Funk Foundation for Medical Research. In 1963, Funk gave up an active role in research when he retired.
Casimir found that vitamins B1, B2, C, and D were necessary to human health and that vitamins contributed to the normal functioning of the hormonal system. His work led to the prevention of beriberi, rickets, scurvy, and other diseases caused by vitamin deficiency.
C. Funk isolated vitamin B1 and demonstrated the importance of this vitamin in nutrition, and he extracted male and female hormones and showed that female hormones were chemically different from male hormones.
Casimir found the connection between Vitamin B complex and carbohydrate metabolism, discovering that vitamins influence the speed at which cancer grows, separating Vitamin D from cholesterol, and realizing that bacteria are a necessary part of the diet.
The Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America (PIASA) annually honors Polish-American scientists with the Casimir Funk Natural Sciences Award.
Casimir was awarded Beit Fellowship from the University of London for his paper "Vitamines".
During his lifetime, he published more than 140 articles, including material on gonadotropic hormones, ulcers, and diabetes.
Casimir Funk was a shy person, hesitant with strangers, but a man of definite opinions.
Quotes from others about the person
Sir Frederick Cowland Hopkins: "Funk’s investigations created a new interest in the studies of nutrition".
Prof. E. V. McCollum: "He represents one of the original minds of our time - a man who always strove to work for the betterment of humanity".
Casimir married to Alix Denise Schneidesch in 1914, and had 2 children.
