German neuroscientist
Marthe Vogt
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Born
| (
1903-09-08
)
September 8, 1903
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Died
| September 9, 2003
(2003-09-09)
(aged 100)
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Known for
| Neurotransmitters
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Awards
| Royal Medal
(1981)
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Scientific career
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Fields
| Neurology
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Marthe Louise Vogt
(September 8, 1903 – September 9, 2003)
[1]
[2]
was a German scientist recognized as one of the leading
neuroscientists
of the twentieth century. She is mainly remembered for her important contributions to the understanding of the role of
neurotransmitters
in the
brain
,
[3]
[4]
especially
epinephrine
.
[5]
Early life and education
[
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]
Vogt was born in
Berlin
, the daughter of two of
Germany
's leading anatomists,
Cecile
and
Oskar Vogt
(French and Danish-German respectively). She was the older sister of
Marguerite Vogt
.
Marthe studied medicine and chemistry at Berlin University (1922?1927), earning her degree as Doctor of Medicine with research on the microscopial anatomy of the human brain.
[6]
She also earned a
D.Phil
in chemistry for research in biochemistry on carbohydrate metabolism at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institut fur Biochemie under C. Neuberg (1927?1929).
[2]
Career
[
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]
In 1929, she began work on pharmacology and endocrinology in the Institute of Pharmacology in Berlin under
Paul Trendelenburg
, where she met
Edith Bulbring
and
Wilhelm Feldberg
and where Paul Trendelenburg's son
Ullrich
became her friend for life. Here Vogt learned about endocrinology and used experimental techniques in pharmacological analysis.
[2]
By the early 1930s, she had established a reputation as one of Germany's leading pharmacologists, and in 1931, aged just 28, was appointed head of the chemical division at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institut fur Hirnforschung ("Brain Science"). Her work focused on the central nervous system and the effects of various drugs on the brain.
With Nazism on the rise throughout Germany, Vogt and other German scientists (including
Edith Bulbring
), decided that a move to Britain would be greatly beneficial, and in 1935 she arrived on a
Rockefeller Travelling Fellowship
in England. Vogt joined the
British Pharmacological Society
and began work with
Sir Henry Dale
at the National Institute for Medical Research, London. Vogt coauthored a paper with Dale and Wilhelm Feldberg: 'Release of Acetylcholine at Voluntary Motor Nerve Endings' in 1936.
[7]
Sir Henry Dale was awarded the
Nobel Prize
for Physiology or Medicine in 1936 based on the work described in this paper, and he credited Feldberg and Vogt in his lecture.
[8]
In late 1935, for the second half of her Rockefeller Traveling Fellowship, Marthe Vogt began work in Cambridge on the relationship of blood pressure to substances from the ischaemic kidney with Professor E.B. Varney, with additional funding grants from the Royal Society. She was also awarded the Alfred Yarrow Research Fellowship of Girton College the next year. In 1938 she was awarded an honorary doctorate from Cambridge, where she was a demonstrator in pharmacology and physiology.
Unfortunately, the politics of World War II threatened her career. Her German nationality led to an investigation by British intelligence services in 1940, who categorized her as a category A enemy alien because Nazi officials would not accept her resignation from a permanent appointment when she left Germany. She was brought before a tribunal which ruled for her immediate internment. However, Vogt's colleagues and friends rallied to her aid and an appeal was granted, freeing her to continue her work at Cambridge.
[2]
Vogt remained at Cambridge for five years, working on topics in hypertension and adrenal gland function. In 1947, Vogt became a lecturer and later reader in pharmacology at
Edinburgh University
, where she continued work on transmitter substances, publishing research on serotonin and reserpine. In 1948, Vogt published a seminal work with William Feldberg: "Acetylcholine synthesis in different regions of the central nervous system". The paper provides the earliest evidence for the role of
acetylcholine
as a neurotransmitter and demonstrated the regional distribution of
cholinergic
systems in the brain.
She was a visiting professor at Columbia University, New York in 1949. Over the next thirty years, Vogt would divide her time between
Cambridge
,
London
and
Edinburgh
, and in 1960 she moved back to Cambridge once more to head the Pharmacology Unit at the
Babraham Institute
, retiring in 1968. She continued research there until 1990.
Publications
[
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]
Awards
[
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]
Throughout her life Marthe Vogt received numerous accolades from many scientific institutions. In 1952 she was elected as a
Fellow of the Royal Society
and in 1981 she was awarded the
Royal Medal
of the Society. She also held honorary doctorates from Edinburgh and Cambridge. She was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
.
[9]
Later life
[
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]
Marthe Vogt later relocated to
La Jolla
,
California
in 1988 to live with her sister, noted cancer biologist
Marguerite Vogt
(1913-2007). Marthe Vogt died the day after her 100th birthday in 2003.
References
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]
External links
[
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]
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