George Whipple facts for kids

Quick facts for kids George Whipple
Born	George Hoyt Whipple (1878-08-28)28 August 1878 Ashland, New Hampshire, U.S.
Died	1 February 1976(1976-02-01) (aged 97) Rochester, New York, U.S.
Parent(s)	Ashley Cooper Whipple Frances Anna Hoyt
Alma mater	Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Yale University
Known for	Liver therapy in cases of anemia
Awards	Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1934
Scientific career
Fields	Medicine
Institutions	University of Rochester University of California, San Francisco

George Hoyt Whipple (born August 28, 1878 – died February 1, 1976) was an American doctor and researcher. He was a pathologist, which means he studied diseases. In 1934, Whipple won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. He shared it with George Richards Minot and William Parry Murphy. They won for their important discoveries about using liver to treat anemia. Anemia is a condition where your blood doesn't have enough healthy red blood cells. Whipple was the first Nobel Prize winner connected to the University of Rochester.

Early Life and Love for Nature

George Whipple was born in Ashland, New Hampshire. His father, Ashley Cooper Whipple, was also a doctor. Sadly, George's father died when George was almost two years old. His grandfathers also passed away soon after. George was then raised by his mother, Frances, and his grandmother. They taught him how important hard work and education were.

Whipple went to Andover prep school. Then, in 1896, he started studying at Yale University. He earned his degree in 1900. During these years, he spent a lot of time outdoors. He loved nature his whole life. He grew up near lakes and enjoyed camping, hiking, and fishing. He even said his love for the outdoors helped him succeed in his studies and work. In the summers, he worked at a drugstore and helped tourists at Squam Lake and Lake Winnipesaukee. He felt he learned a lot during these summer jobs.

Becoming a Scientist

At Yale, George Whipple was a top science student. He was also a prize-winning gymnast and oarsman. He joined the Sigma Xi honor society because of his excellent grades. Two biochemists, Russell Henry Chittenden and Lafayette Mendel, greatly influenced him. Whipple said that working with Mendel was "exciting and never to be forgotten."

After Yale, Whipple took a year off to teach math and science. He also coached sports at a military school in Ossining, New York. This helped him save money for medical school.

In 1901, his mother encouraged him to attend Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He earned his M.D. degree in 1905. To help pay for school, he worked as a teaching assistant. He also became a student instructor in anatomy. This is where he became very interested in histology, which is the study of tissues. His mentors, William Welch and William McCallum, inspired him. They taught him to connect what he saw in patients' illnesses to what he found in tissues after death. This led him to become a pathologist.

A Career in Medicine

In 1905, Whipple joined the pathology department at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He was promoted several times. In 1914, he left Johns Hopkins. Before that, he spent a year in Panama at Ancon Hospital. There, he studied tropical diseases. He also learned about a serious blood condition called blackwater fever. He then traveled to Europe to study anemia in rabbits and how blood flows in the liver.

In 1914, George Whipple married Katherine Ball Waring. They had two children. That same year, he became a professor and director at the Hooper Foundation for Medical Research at the University of California San Francisco medical school. He was also the dean of that medical school in 1920 and 1921.

In 1921, the president of the University of Rochester, Benjamin Rush Rhees, convinced Whipple to move. Whipple agreed to become a professor and the first dean of the new medical school (URMC). He loved the idea of building a medical school from scratch. His goal was to bring together doctors who treated patients and scientists who did research. He wanted the medical school and hospital to be in the same place. The first students started at URMC in 1925.

During his time as dean, the medical school had policies that were later found to be unfair to some students. In 1939, a commission from the New York state legislature found that these practices went against New York's anti-discrimination laws. After this, URMC began to admit all qualified medical students.

Later Years and Retirement

In 1953, at 75 years old, Whipple retired as dean. He fully retired from the University in 1955. He was known as an excellent teacher. He wrote in his autobiography that he wanted to be remembered as a teacher. In retirement, he still helped with medical school activities. But he also returned to his love for the outdoors. He enjoyed hunting, salmon fishing, and tarpon fishing.

George Whipple died in 1976 when he was 97 years old. His ashes were scattered in Rochester's Mount Hope Cemetery.

He was not related to Allen Whipple, who developed the Whipple procedure. However, they were lifelong friends. The Whipples were also good friends with George Eastman, who founded Eastman Kodak.

Whipple's Important Research

George Whipple wrote or helped write over 300 scientific papers. His main research focused on anemia and the physiology (how the body works) and pathology (how diseases affect the body) of the liver. He also studied tuberculosis, pancreatitis, and how the body uses iron.

One of his first studies looked at how tuberculosis spreads in the body. Another early paper described a patient with fat buildup in their small intestine. He called this condition lipodystrophia intestinalis. He correctly guessed it was caused by bacteria. Today, this disease is known as Whipple's disease.

At Johns Hopkins, Whipple studied how liver cells repair themselves. He showed that liver cells in dogs could regenerate almost completely. He also found that the liver creates fibrinogen, a protein needed for blood clotting. His work also explained how bile pigments enter the blood, causing jaundice (yellowing of the skin).

Later, he studied bile pigments at the Hooper Foundation. He wanted to understand how hemoglobin, the protein in red blood cells, breaks down into bile pigments. With his colleague Hooper, he published 12 papers between 1915 and 1917. They found that:

• Bile pigment bilirubin comes from muscle hemoglobin, but mostly from red blood cell hemoglobin.
• Bile pigment is not reused to make new red blood cells.
• Bilirubin can be made in other parts of the body, not just the liver.
• A healthy liver is needed to remove bilirubin from the body.
• Diet affects how quickly red blood cells regenerate in anemia.

At the University of Rochester, Whipple focused on how different foods helped dogs recover from long-term anemia. He worked with his research assistant, Frieda Robscheit-Robbins. They published 21 papers together between 1925 and 1930. They studied:

• Blood and hemoglobin levels.
• How diet affects bile production.
• Blood fibrinogen levels.
• How diet, blood loss, and liver injury affect fibrinogen.
• How blood regenerates after anemia.

Whipple and Robscheit-Robbins were known for their amazing teamwork in medicine.

In 1925, Whipple published a series of important studies called "Blood Regeneration in Severe Anemia." He showed that feeding raw liver to anemic dogs was the best way to help them produce more red blood cells. He also found that other animal tissues and cooked apricots helped. He believed the iron in these foods was key to making new red blood cells. This research directly led to a successful liver treatment for pernicious anemia. George R. Minot and William P. Murphy used this idea, even though they later found that Vitamin B12, not iron, was the main reason liver helped. This was a huge discovery because pernicious anemia used to be deadly for young people. For this work, Whipple shared the Nobel Prize in 1934 with Minot and Murphy.

In 1937, Whipple studied how long red blood cells live in dogs. He also worked with radioactive iron to study how the body absorbs and uses iron. They found that the small intestine carefully controls how much iron is absorbed. They also learned that the body loses very little iron normally. Whipple also developed a theory about how proteins in the blood and tissues are always changing. This idea helped start modern biochemistry.

During World War II, Whipple studied how different amino acids (the building blocks of protein) affected protein creation in the blood. He found mixtures of amino acids that could help dogs maintain their weight and blood protein levels. This research later led to human clinical trials. These trials showed that these amino acid mixtures could feed patients who couldn't eat normally for long periods. Today, this method, called parenteral nutrition (feeding through a vein), is used all the time.

Nobel Prize and Other Honors

George Whipple shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1934. He won it with George R. Minot and William P. Murphy. Their award was "for their discoveries concerning liver therapy in cases of anemia."

When presenting the Nobel Prize, Professor I. Holmgren said that Whipple was the first to start the research that led to the prize. He noted that Whipple's experiments were very well planned and accurate. This made his results very reliable. Whipple's findings gave Minot and Murphy the idea to try liver treatment for pernicious anemia.

Whipple received honorary doctorates from many universities around the world. In 1930, he and Minot received the Popular Science Monthly Gold Medal. In 1934, he was given the William Wood Gerhard Gold Medal.

He was also a member of many important organizations, including:

• The Rockefeller Foundation, where he was a Trustee.
• The British Medical Association, as a Foreign Corresponding Member.
• The American Philosophical Society, as an Honorary Member.

See also

In Spanish: George Hoyt Whipple para niños

• Whipple House (Ashland, New Hampshire), his birthplace
• New Hampshire Historical Marker No. 100: George Hoyt Whipple