M. Marco Igual
Neurosciences and History 2025;13(2): 87-101
Article type: Original
AUTHOR
M. Marco Igual
Neurology Department. Hospital Parc Taulí, Sabadell, Spain.
ABSTRACT
Shortly after the end of the Second World War, the German physician Gabriele Zu Rhein emigrated to the United States, where she developed a fruitful professional career as a neuropathologist at the University of Wisconsin- Madison. She was an autodidact who also benefited from the interdisciplinary collaboration of such other specialists as virologists, neurologists, paediatricians, and veterinarians. For more than 50 years, she tirelessly dedicated a significant amount of her time to research, taking advantage of her skills in the emerging field of electron microscopy and her interest in neurovirology. Her main professional achievements were her studies on progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy and the discovery of the John Cunningham virus, the tumours associated with this virus in experimental animals, and transmissible mink encephalopathy; and her research into dementia associated with Mycoplasma pneumoniae in the final years of her professional career. She was also an outstanding general pathologist, conducting noteworthy research on congenital diseases that progress with psychomotor disability, and research into viral diseases of the nervous system.
KEYWORDS
Gabriele Zu Rhein, neuropathology, progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy, JC virus, transmissible mink encephalopathy, dementia associated with Mycoplasma pneumoniae
Neurosciences and History 2025;13(2): 87-101