American
chemist Carl Djerassi, one of the main developers of the birth control pill,
has died at the age of 91 in San Francisco. He synthesized a female hormone
that became the basis for oral contraceptives.
Deutsche Welle, 31 Jan 2015
The chemist
Carl Djerassi was known for synthesizing progesterone, a female hormone in 1951
that is involved in the menstrual cycle and pregnancy, a development that
formed the basis for oral contraceptives for women.
On the
basis of this scientific achievement, he helped develop the birth control pill
in cooperation with the Boston pharmacologists Gregory Pincus and John Rock.
Djerassi
also contributed to synthesizing the steroid hormone cortisone, paving the way
for new kinds of medical treatment for various diseases.
Carl
Djerassi was born in Vienna in 1923. He was the son of a Jewish
Austrian-Bulgarian couple, both doctors. Because of his Jewish origin he was
forced to flee Austria when it was annexed by Adolf Hitler in 1938. Djerassi
left for Bulgaria and then moved to the US, where he became an internationally
renowned scientist and eventually professor emeritus at Stanford University.
Later in
life, he also published poems, short stories, novels and plays. His first play,
"An Immaculate Misconception" (1998), was translated into 12
languages and staged in the UK, the US, Germany, Austria, Japan and other
countries.
As a famous
art collector, Djerassi owned one of the most impressive collections of
paintings by Paul Klee and gave about half of them to the Albertina museum in
Vienna.
He died in
San Francisco on Friday at the age of 91, according to a museum spokeswoman.
das/cmk (dpa, AFP)
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