Otto Heinrich Warburg

Warburg’s devotion to his work was so intense that he did not find time to marry. To him, family life and scientific research were incompatible. In fact, according to one his colleagues, Karlfried Gawehn, except for death, there were no reasonable grounds for Warburg for not working.

He worked almost until the end of his life. He was however a lifelong equestrian and enjoyed the sport. He died on August 1, 1970 at the Berlin home he shared with Jakob Heiss.

In 1963, while he was still alive, the German Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (Gesellschaftfür Biochemie und Molekularbiologie) established Otto Warburg Medal. It is the highest award for biochemists and molecular biologists in Germany and honors pioneering work in the field biochemical and molecular biological research.

Otto Heinrich Warburg was born on October 8, 1883 in Freiburg, then under German Empire, into a renowned Jewish family. His father, Emil Gabriel Warburg, was a well-known physicist. He carried on research on kinetic theory of gases, electrical conductivity, gas discharges, heat radiation, ferromagnetism and photochemistry.

His father, Emil, had converted to Christianity before Heinrich’s birth and married Elizabeth Gaertner, who came from a Protestant family of bankers and civil servants. Heinrich was their only child.

In 1901, he enrolled at the University of Freiburg with chemistry as his major. Two years later he shifted to the University of Berlin and earned his PhD in Chemistry in 1906. The Nobel Prize winning chemist, Hermann Emil Fischer was his doctoral advisor.

Sometime now, he developed an interest in medicine and joined the University of Heidelberg. In 1911, he earned his MD, working under the renowned internist and physiologist, Albrecht Ludolf von Krehl.

In 1908, three years before he earned his MD from the University of Heidelberg, Heinrich Warburg joined Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, a marine biological research institute in Naples as research scholar. He was affiliated with the institute until the start of the World War I in 1914.

While at the research institute, Warburg began experimenting on the consumption of oxygen in sea urchin. He proved that once the eggs are fertilized the rate of respiration increases six-fold and that iron is essential for proper growth at the larval stage.

During this period, he also discovered that small amounts of cyanide can inhibit cell oxidation. From this experiment Warburg inferred that at least one catalyst necessary for oxidation must contain a heavy metal.

However, as the World War I set in 1914, Warburg left Naples. Subsequently, he joined the Prussian Guard Regiment (Uhlans) as an officer and was awarded the Iron Cross (1st Class) for bravery.

In 1918, just before the end of the war he left the army on the advice of Albert Einstein and joined Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Biology in Berlin-Dahlem as a professor. However, he was absolved from teaching duties and this allowed him to devote all his time to research work

Otto Heinrich Warburg is best remembered for his work on cell oxidation on the effect of oxygen on cancer. He had established that cancerous cells can live and develop even in the absence of oxygen. His discovery opened up new directions in the fields of cellular metabolism and cellular respiration.

He had also discovered the iron-enzyme complex, which acts as a catalyst during cell oxidation. He also invented manometer, which is capable of measuring the respiration in healthy cells.