Otto Funke

Otto Funke

Otto Funke (October 27, 1828 - August 17, 1879) was a German physiologist who was a native of Chemnitz. He studied at Leipzig and Heidelberg, and in 1852 became a lecturer of physiology at the University of Leipzig. In 1856 he became a professor of physiological chemistry in Leipzig, and in 1860 a professor of physiology and zoology at the University of Freiburg. One of his better known students at Leipzig was physiologist Karl Ewald Konstantin Hering (1834-1918).

In 1851 Otto Funke was the first scientist to successfully crystallize hemoglobin ((German): "Hämoglobinkrystallen"), which he first called "Blutfarbstoffes". This work was a precursor to Felix Hoppe-Seyler's important studies of hemoglobin. Funke also performed research of blood formation in the spleen, and investigations into the effects of curare.

Selected publications

• Lehrbuch der Physiologie (7. Aufl. von Grünhagen, Hamburg 1884)
• Atlas der physiologischen Chemie (Leipzig 1853, 2. Aufl. 1858), Supplement to Carl Lehmann's Lehrbuch der physiologischen Chemie
• Kapitel über den Tastsinn und die Gemeingefühle. In: Ludimar Hermann's Handbuch der Physiologie (Bd. 3, Leipzig 1880)

References

• A NASA Recipe For Protein Crystallography

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Name	Funke, Otto
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Date of birth	October 27, 1828
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Date of death	August 17, 1879
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