The 2nd International Weigl Conference
"MICROBIOLOGY IN THE XXI CENTURY"
In memory of Professor Rudolf Stefan Weigl (1883-1957)
Warsaw Life Sciences University - SGGW,
Warszawa, Poland: 24-26 September 2007
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Dear Colleagues,
We have a great pleasure to invite you to the exciting joint initiative, the
2nd Polish-Ukrainian Weigl Conference. This meeting is jointly organized by
Polish and Ukrainian microbiologists with financial support of the Polish
Academy of Sciences and Warsaw Agricultural University-SGGW.
We truly believed that the 2nd Weigl Conference will create an
opportunities to establish scientific network in the area of microbiology
and will build fruitful collaborative relationships between microbiologists
from both countries .
Professor Rudolf S.Weigl (1883-1957) was a famous microbiologist. He
worked on rickettsioses, some of the oldest infectious diseases known to the
man. Since the ancient times they were responsible for large outbreaks of
plaguelike illness. Genus Rickettsia includes some of the most highly
virulent bacteria known. During Weigls. days it was divided into the typhus
and spotted fever groups. Currently, this genus contains 21 species with
several agents of uncertain taxonomy. Rickettsia prowazekii is the agent of
epidemic typhus, a louse-born disease of humans worldwide. Every disaster,
and war is the worst one, brings the threat of typhus epidemics .
Professor R.S.Weigl is world known not only for his achievements in
microbiology but also for the first effective vaccine against epidemic
typhus, he had developed in late thirties of XX century. It was a killed
vaccine prepared on lice. The manufacturing procedure included feeding of
lice with human blood. In a wartime many people, among them academic
workers, were employed as lice feeders in Weigl Institute. Having a proof of
employment lice feeders were safe from street roundups, the terrifying
reality in Lvov during German occupation. Thus Professor Weigl enormous help
to the protection of humans life was not only due directly to his vaccine.
He should never be forgotten.
Professor R.S.Weigl.s contribution to biomedicine was profound and
remarkable - he was considered as a candidate to the Nobel Prize in
physiology and medicine
We invite you to share in the science and visit Warsaw, the capital of
Poland .
Professor Andriy Sybirny
Ukrainian Chairman of the
Organising Committee | Professor Marek Niemiałtowski
Polish Chairman of the
Organising Committee |
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