Manfred Martin Mayer (15 June 1916,

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

– 18 September 1984,

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

) was a German-born, American microbiologist and immunologist. He is considered the founder of

complement A complement is something that completes something else. Complement may refer specifically to: The arts * Complement (music), an interval that, when added to another, spans an octave ** Aggregate complementation, the separation of pitch-class ...

research.

Biography

Manfred M. Mayer attended elementary school and secondary school in Germany. Mayer's family fled to the United States in December 1933 because of

political events Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...

. He graduated from

City College of New York The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a public university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York City. Founded in 1847, Cit ...

in 1938 with a bachelor's degree and from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

in 1946 with a PhD under the supervision

Michael Heidelberger Michael Heidelberger (April 29, 1888 – June 25, 1991) was an American immunologist, often regarded as the father of modern immunology. He and Oswald Avery showed that the polysaccharides of pneumococcus are antigens, enabling him to show tha ...

with a dissertation on the chemistry and immunology of

phosphorylated In chemistry, phosphorylation is the attachment of a phosphate group to a molecule or an ion. This process and its inverse, dephosphorylation, are common in biology and could be driven by natural selection. Text was copied from this source, whi ...

serum albumin Serum albumin, often referred to simply as blood albumin, is an albumin (a type of globular protein) found in vertebrate blood. Human serum albumin is encoded by the ''ALB'' gene. Other mammalian forms, such as bovine serum albumin, are chemical ...

. Mayer published several papers on

precipitin A precipitin is an antibody which can precipitate out of a solution upon antigen binding. Precipitin reaction The precipitin reaction provided the first quantitative assay for antibody. The precipitin reaction is based upon the interaction of anti ...

reactions and the

cross-reactivity Cross-reactivity, in a general sense, is the reactivity of an observed agent which initiates reactions outside the main reaction expected. This has implications for any kind of test or assay, including diagnostic tests in medicine, and can be a ...

of various

polysaccharides Polysaccharides (), or polycarbohydrates, are the most abundant carbohydrates found in food. They are long chain polymeric carbohydrates composed of monosaccharide units bound together by glycosidic linkages. This carbohydrate can react with w ...

in the envelope of ''

Streptococcus pneumoniae ''Streptococcus pneumoniae'', or pneumococcus, is a Gram-positive, spherical bacteria, alpha-hemolytic (under aerobic conditions) or beta-hemolytic (under anaerobic conditions), aerotolerant anaerobic member of the genus Streptococcus. They are ...

''. Mayer, with

Elvin A. Kabat Elvin Abraham Kabat (September 1, 1914 – June 16, 2000) was an American biomedical scientist and one of the founding fathers of modern quantitative immunochemistry. Kabat was awarded the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize from Columbia University in 1 ...

, published the textbook '' Experimental Immunochemistry '', which between 1948 and 1984 had two editions and seven reprints. At Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Mayer became in 1946 an assistant professor, in 1948 an associate professor, and 1960 a full professor. At Johns Hopkins University, he elucidated the sequence of 18

enzyme Enzymes () are proteins that act as biological catalysts by accelerating chemical reactions. The molecules upon which enzymes may act are called substrates, and the enzyme converts the substrates into different molecules known as products. A ...

reactions of the

complement system The complement system, also known as complement cascade, is a part of the immune system that enhances (complements) the ability of antibodies and phagocytic cells to clear microbes and damaged cells from an organism, promote inflammation, and at ...

, demonstrated

calcium Calcium is a chemical element with the symbol Ca and atomic number 20. As an alkaline earth metal, calcium is a reactive metal that forms a dark oxide-nitride layer when exposed to air. Its physical and chemical properties are most similar to ...

and

magnesium Magnesium is a chemical element with the symbol Mg and atomic number 12. It is a shiny gray metal having a low density, low melting point and high chemical reactivity. Like the other alkaline earth metals (group 2 of the periodic ta ...

as cofactors of the complement system, and described how

lysis Lysis ( ) is the breaking down of the membrane of a cell, often by viral, enzymic, or osmotic (that is, "lytic" ) mechanisms that compromise its integrity. A fluid containing the contents of lysed cells is called a ''lysate''. In molecular bio ...

is accomplished by the complement system, which inserts a pore into the cell wall of the target cell. Further work by Mayer concerned

malaria Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or death. S ...

and the purification of

poliovirus A poliovirus, the causative agent of polio (also known as poliomyelitis), is a serotype of the species ''Enterovirus C'', in the family of ''Picornaviridae''. There are three poliovirus serotypes: types 1, 2, and 3. Poliovirus is composed of an ...

. Robert Armstrong Nelson and Mayer developed the eponymous Nelson-Mayer test, which enables diagnosis of syphilis based on the demonstration of immobilizing antibodies that occur in the patient's serum. The test greatly reduces

false-positive A false positive is an error in binary classification in which a test result incorrectly indicates the presence of a condition (such as a disease when the disease is not present), while a false negative is the opposite error, where the test result ...

diagnoses of syphilis. Nelson and Mayer also developed Nelson-Mayer basal

medium Medium may refer to: Science and technology Aviation *Medium bomber, a class of war plane * Tecma Medium, a French hang glider design Communication * Media (communication), tools used to store and deliver information or data * Medium of ...

for growing ''

Treponema pallidum ''Treponema pallidum'', formerly known as ''Spirochaeta pallida'', is a spirochaete bacterium with various subspecies that cause the diseases syphilis, bejel (also known as endemic syphilis), and yaws. It is transmitted only among humans. It is ...

'' bacteria in vitro.Manfred Martin Mayer
at whonamedit.com He and his wife Elinor S. Mayer (1921–2007) were married in 1943 and had four sons. Manfred Mayer's students include

Teruko Ishizaka was a Japanese scientist and immunologist who along with her husband Kimishige Ishizaka discovered the antibody class Immunoglobulin E (IgE) in 1966. Their work was regarded as a major breakthrough in the understanding of allergy, and for this ...

Awards and honors

* 1953 — Kimble Award for Methodology * 1957 — Selman Waksman Lectureship Award * 1969 — Honorary Doctor of Medical Science, Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany * 1974 —

Karl Landsteiner Memorial Award The Karl Landsteiner Memorial Award is a scientific award given by the American Association of Blood Banks (AABB) to scientists with "an international reputation in transfusion medicine or cellular therapies" "whose original research resulted in an ...

American Association of Blood Banks American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

* 1976 — Albion O. Bernstein Award, Medical Society of the State of New York * 1976/1977 — President of the

American Association of Immunologists The American Association of Immunologists (AAI) is an international scientific society dedicated to furthering the study of immunology. AAI provides its members with a variety of platforms in which to exchange ideas and present the latest immunolo ...

* 1979 — Member of the United States National Academy of Sciences * 1982 —

Gairdner Foundation International Award The Canada Gairdner International Award is given annually by the Gairdner Foundation at a special dinner to five individuals for outstanding discoveries or contributions to medical science. Receipt of the Gairdner is traditionally considered a p ...

, Toronto, Canada

References

External links

K. Frank Austen, "Manfred Martin Mayer", Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences (1990)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mayer, Manfred M. American immunologists American microbiologists 1916 births 1984 deaths City College of New York alumni Columbia University alumni Johns Hopkins University faculty Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences 20th-century American scientists German emigrants to the United States