Background
KOSTERLITZ, Hans was born on April 27, 1903 in Berlin, Germany. Son of Bernhard and Selma Kosterlitz.
biochemist Pharmacologist university professor
KOSTERLITZ, Hans was born on April 27, 1903 in Berlin, Germany. Son of Bernhard and Selma Kosterlitz.
1 child, J. Michael. Doctor of Medicine, University Berlin, 1929. Doctor of Philosophy, U.Aberdeen, Scotland, 1936, Doctor of Science, 1944, LL.D (honorary), 1979. Doctorate. honoriscausa, U. Liege, 1978.
Honorary Doctor of Science, U. Saint Andrews, 1982.
He emigrated to Scotland in 1934, after the takeover of the Nazi Party in Germany. He joined the staff of Aberdeen University in the same year where he later served as professor of pharmacology and chemistry from 1968 until 1973 when he became director of the university"s drug addiction research unit Kosterlitz is best known for his work on endorphins.
He performed a famous experiment that he envisioned in a dream while sleeping.
He stimulated a strip of guinea pig intestine electrically and was able to record the contractions with a polygraph. He then found that if you added opiates to the solution, the intestine would not contract.
Opiates inhibit intestinal contraction. Those contractions were later found to resume in the presence of both opiates and an antagonist such as naloxone.
Later, endogenous endorphins were discovered by applying tissue (pig brain cell homegenate) to the apparatus.
This caused the contractions to cease. The degree to which an opiate agonist inhibits contractions in the guinea pig ileum is highly correlated to its potency. The University of Aberdeen officially opened its new Kosterlitz Centre on 16 September 2010 in memory of Professor Hans Kosterlitz, who joined the University in 1933.
Hans Kosterlitz was the brother of the film director Henry Koster, born Hermann Kosterlitz.
Their son, J. Michael, is Professor for Physics at Brown University.
Member Executive Committee International Narcotic Research Conference, 1972-1977. Member editorial board numerous professional journals. Fellow Royal Society Edinburgh (Makdougall-Brisbane Prize medal 1980), Royal Society London (Royal medal 1979, Wellcome Foundation prize 1982), Royal College Physicians Edinburgh.
Member.German Pharmacol.
Society, British Pharmacol. Society, Collegium International Neuro-Psychopharmacologicum, International Association Study of Pain, Physiological Society, National Academy Science (foreign associate).
Married Johanna M.K. Gresshöner. 1 child, J. Michael.