Gyula Takátsy (1914–1980), was a Hungarian medical doctor, microbiologist and inventor. In 1938 he graduated from the University of Medicine in Pécs, Hungary, and joined the staff at the Institute of Public Health, where he worked until his early death in 1980. An influenza epidemic in

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croa ...

in the early 1950s led to a shortage of laboratory equipment, causing Takácsy to develop a number of new laboratory techniques and tools. These included small platinum spiral loops to replace

pipette A pipette (sometimes spelled as pipett) is a laboratory tool commonly used in chemistry, biology and medicine to transport a measured volume of liquid, often as a media dispenser. Pipettes come in several designs for various purposes with dif ...

s, and microwell plates instead of test tubes. He introduced the idea of using calibrated spiral loops for multiple serial dilution in plastic microwell plates, and coined the term 'micromethods', first published in Hungarian in 1952 and in English in 1955, for laboratory procedures carried out on a small scale. This allowed for the use of very small volumes of blood in virus research, and a considerable reduction in the use of costly

serum Serum may refer to: *Serum (blood), plasma from which the clotting proteins have been removed **Antiserum, blood serum with specific antibodies for passive immunity * Serous fluid, any clear bodily fluid * Truth serum, a drug that is likely to mak ...

s and

antigen In immunology, an antigen (Ag) is a molecule or molecular structure or any foreign particulate matter or a pollen grain that can bind to a specific antibody or T-cell receptor. The presence of antigens in the body may trigger an immune response. ...

s. Improved versions of his microwell plates are now a standard laboratory tool. The original spiral loop was similar to the platinum loop used in bacteriology. Takátsy improved this by forming multiple windings in the loop, somewhat like the filament of an

incandescent light bulb An incandescent light bulb, incandescent lamp or incandescent light globe is an electric light with a wire filament heated until it glows. The filament is enclosed in a glass bulb with a vacuum or inert gas to protect the filament from oxida ...

. The narrow gaps between the windings drew a constant volume of fluid by

capillary action Capillary action (sometimes called capillarity, capillary motion, capillary rise, capillary effect, or wicking) is the process of a liquid flowing in a narrow space without the assistance of, or even in opposition to, any external forces li ...

. These were calibrated and arranged in arrays, enabling efficient dilution procedures. The reliability of this microtechnique led to its adoption as the standard method for serological testing at the Communicable Disease Center. Takátsy carried out research on the variability of antigenic structure and the pathology and epidemiology of influenza virus mutations, as well as vaccine production and control, published across 50 papers. He was head of the Influenza Unit (

WHO Who or WHO may refer to: * Who (pronoun), an interrogative or relative pronoun * Who?, one of the Five Ws in journalism * World Health Organization Arts and entertainment Fictional characters * Who, a creature in the Dr. Seuss book ''Horton Hear ...

National Influenza Centre) which produced 630,000 vaccine doses during the

Hong Kong flu The Hong Kong flu, also known as the 1968 flu pandemic, was a flu pandemic whose outbreak in 1968 and 1969 killed between one and four million people globally. It is among the deadliest pandemics in history, and was caused by an H3N2 strain of ...

pandemic of 1968/1969, was a member of the Board of the Hungarian Society of Microbiology, and received several awards, including the ''Manninger Rezső Medal''.

References

External links

Akadémiai KiadóGarfield LibraryJ . gen. Microbiol. (1968), 50, 465-478
{{DEFAULTSORT:Takatsy, Gyula 1914 births 1980 deaths 20th-century Hungarian physicians 20th-century Hungarian inventors