Hans Gruneberg at a microscope Wellcome L0073423

Hans Grüneberg (26 May 1907 – 23 October 1982), whose name was also written as Hans Grueneberg and Hans Gruneberg, was a British

geneticist A geneticist is a biologist or physician who studies genetics, the science of genes, heredity, and variation of organisms. A geneticist can be employed as a scientist or a lecturer. Geneticists may perform general research on genetic processe ...

. Grüneberg was born in

Wuppertal Wuppertal (; "''Wupper Dale''") is, with a population of approximately 355,000, the seventh-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia as well as the 17th-largest city of Germany. It was founded in 1929 by the merger of the cities and to ...

–

Elberfeld Elberfeld is a municipal subdivision of the German city of Wuppertal; it was an independent town until 1929. History The first official mentioning of the geographic area on the banks of today's Wupper River as "''elverfelde''" was in a docu ...

in Germany. He obtained an MD from the

University of Bonn The Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (german: Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn) is a public research university located in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the ( en, Rhine U ...

, a PhD in biology from the

University of Berlin Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative o ...

and a

DSc DSC may refer to: Academia * Doctor of Science (D.Sc.) * District Selection Committee, an entrance exam in India * Doctor of Surgical Chiropody, superseded in the 1960s by Doctor of Podiatric Medicine Educational institutions * Dalton State Col ...

from the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

. He arrived in London in 1933, at the invitation of

J.B.S. Haldane John Burdon Sanderson Haldane (; 5 November 18921 December 1964), nicknamed "Jack" or "JBS", was a British-Indian scientist who worked in physiology, genetics, evolutionary biology, and mathematics. With innovative use of statistics in biolog ...

and Sir Henry Dale. He was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

in 1956. Most of his work focused on mouse genetics, in which his speciality was the study of

pleiotropic Pleiotropy (from Greek , 'more', and , 'way') occurs when one gene influences two or more seemingly unrelated phenotypic traits. Such a gene that exhibits multiple phenotypic expression is called a pleiotropic gene. Mutation in a pleiotropic ge ...

effects of

mutation In biology, a mutation is an alteration in the nucleic acid sequence of the genome of an organism, virus, or extrachromosomal DNA. Viral genomes contain either DNA or RNA. Mutations result from errors during DNA or viral replication, mi ...

s on the development of the mouse skeleton. He was the first person to describe siderocytes and sideroblasts, atypical nucleated

erythrocyte Red blood cells (RBCs), also referred to as red cells, red blood corpuscles (in humans or other animals not having nucleus in red blood cells), haematids, erythroid cells or erythrocytes (from Greek ''erythros'' for "red" and ''kytos'' for "holl ...

s with granules of iron accumulated in perinuclear

mitochondria A mitochondrion (; ) is an organelle found in the Cell (biology), cells of most Eukaryotes, such as animals, plants and Fungus, fungi. Mitochondria have a double lipid bilayer, membrane structure and use aerobic respiration to generate adenosi ...

. This he reported in the journal ''

Nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physics, physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomenon, phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. ...

''. The Grüneberg ganglion, an olfactory ganglion in rodents, was first described by Hans Grueneberg in 1973.

Career

* Honorary Research Assistant,

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

, 1933–38 * Moseley Research Student of Royal Society, 1938–42 * Captain,

Royal Army Medical Corps The Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) is a specialist corps in the British Army which provides medical services to all Army personnel and their families, in war and in peace. The RAMC, the Royal Army Veterinary Corps, the Royal Army Dental Corps a ...

, 1942–46 * Reader in Genetics, University College London, 1946–55 * Honorary Director of the Medical Research Council Experimental Genetics Unit at University College London, 1955–1972 * Professor of Genetics University College London, 1956–1974 * Affiliated with the Department of Pathology, Mount Vernon Hospital, Northwood, Middlesex * Emeritus Professor University College London, from retirement, 1974

Books

*1947. ''Animal genetics and medicine''. Hamish Hamilton, London. *1952. ''The genetics of the mouse''. 2nd ed, revised and enlarged. Nijhoff, The Hague. *1963. ''The pathology of development: a study of inherited skeletal disorders in animals''. Wiley, London.

References

External links

Codebreakers: Makers of Modern Genetics: the Hans Grüneberg papers

Sources

Professor Hans Grüneberg's personal papers archive
is available for study at the Wellcome Collection (some material is digitised and digitally accessible via the website). {{DEFAULTSORT:Gruneberg, Hans 1907 births 1982 deaths Scientists from Wuppertal German emigrants to England British geneticists 20th-century British biologists Royal Army Medical Corps officers British Army personnel of World War II Fellows of the Royal Society Jewish scientists Academics of University College London 20th-century British medical doctors Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United Kingdom