Hans Buchner (1850-1902) was a German bacteriologist associated with the Munich School of bacteriology. Buchner studied medicine in Munich and Leipzig, earning his MD at the latter's university in 1874 before serving for some years as a doctor in the Bavarian Army. In 1880 he was appointed Lecturer at the University of Munich's Institute for Hygiene; fourteen years later, he was appointed Professor of Hygiene, a position previously occupied by Max von Pettenkoffer (1818-1901). Buchner conducted experiments on the inhalation of anthrax spores by test animals, and he, with Emmerich, disputed the value of Koch's investigations of cholera. He is best known for immunological studies of blood serum and for the substance "alexin," later called "complement" by Ehrlich. He was the elder brother of the Nobel Prize-winning chemist Edward Buchner, whom he assisted, with Martin Hahn, in the study of Zymasegarung (Zymase fermentation), on which the three jointly published a report in 1903. (The iconic "Buchner flask" was not his invention but that of Ernst Buchner, chemist.)
Created 12 February 2023