Casimir Funk

Casimir Funk ( ; February 23, 1884 – November 19, 1967) was a Polish biochemist generally credited with being among the first to formulate the concept of vitamins (the first being the English chemist Frederick Gowland Hopkins) after publishing a landmark medical writing in 1912. He highlighted these "vital amines" (or "vitamines") as critical in fighting significant diseases such as pellagra and rickets, and his analysis influenced a major shift in scientific thinking. His scientific work involved research in Poland, France and the United Kingdom. In 1920, he became a citizen of the United States where he continued his work.

Early life and education

He was born in Warsaw (the capital of Poland), being the son of a medical specialist in dermatology. In his early career, he worked as a biochemist at the Pasteur Institute, the Wiesbaden Municipal Hospital, the University of Berlin, and the Lister Institute. Funk emigrated to New York State in 1915, moving back and forth between the United States and Europe until World War II.

Career

thumb|Dr. Casimir Funk at his research laboratory in New York City in 1953

After reading an article by Christiaan Eijkman that indicated that persons who ate brown rice were less vulnerable to beri-beri than those who ate only the fully milled product, Funk tried to isolate the substance responsible, and he succeeded. Because that substance contained an amine group, he called it "vitamine". It was later to be known as vitamin B₃ (niacin), although he thought it would be thiamine (vitamin B₁) and described it as "anti-beri-beri-factor".

In 1911, he published his first paper in English, on dihydroxyphenylalanine. Funk was sure more than one substance like Vitamin B₁ existed, and in his 1912 article for the Journal of State Medicine, he proposed the existence of at least four vitamins: one preventing beriberi ("antiberiberi"); one preventing scurvy ("antiscorbutic"); one preventing pellagra ("antipellagric"); and one preventing rickets ("antirachitic"). From there, Funk published a book, The Vitamines, in 1912, and later that year received a Beit Fellowship to continue his research.

Funk proposed the hypothesis that other diseases, such as rickets, pellagra, coeliac disease, and scurvy could also be cured by vitamins. Funk was an early investigator of the problem of pellagra. He suggested that a change in the method of milling corn was responsible for the outbreak of pellagra, but no attention was paid to his article on this subject.

The "e" at the end of "vitamine" was later removed, when it was realized that vitamins need not be nitrogen-containing amines. He postulated the existence of other essential nutrients, which became known as vitamins B₁, B₂, C, and D. In 1936, he determined the molecular structure of thiamine, though he was not the first to isolate it. Funk also conducted research into hormones, diabetes, peptic ulcers, and the biochemistry of cancer. In 1940, after returning to the United States, he became president of the Funk Foundation for Medical Research. He spent his last years studying the causes of neoplasms. Past winners have included Nobel Laureate Roald Hoffmann, Aleksander Wolszczan, Hilary Koprowski, Peter T. Wolczanski, Wacław Szybalski, Zbyszek Darzynkiewicz and Benoit Mandelbrot.

A Google Doodle commemorated Funk's 140th birthday on February 23rd of 2024 in tandem with his family's estate and its various efforts. This included working with Erik Funk, Casimir Funk's grandson, who praised the company's actions.