A Tribute to Professor Lothar Bernd Zimmerhackl, M.D., Ph.D. (1952–2010)

 

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Professor Dr. Lothar Bernd Zimmerhackl, M.D., Ph.D. (Fig. [1]), who devoted his scientific and medical life to pediatric renal diseases, and who directed the Innsbruck Medical University children's clinic (Pädiatrie I, Dept. f. Kinder-und Jugendheilkunde) for almost a decade, died on August 27, 2010, at the intensive care unit of Innsbruck Medical Hospital due to a massive (second) heart attack, at age 57.

Professor Dr. Lothar Bernd Zimmerhackl (1952–2010)

Professor Zimmerhackl was born on December 30, 1952, in Weinheim, a few miles north of Heidelberg. He was always proud of his roots, which was also evident when he spoke because he never bothered to negate the Kurpfalz (electoral palatinate) accent of his childhood. Bernd, as his friends used to call him, was authentic. When he believed something was not correct, he raised his voice and spoke out plainly and discussed these issues. He was not a follower of the famous German saying “Reden ist Silber, Schweigen ist Gold,” which is not necessarily of German origin because the English version also says, “Talk is silver, but silence is golden.” However, there is also another English version: “A shut mouth catches no flies.”

Because Bernd was a very social colleague and jolly character, he would have forgiven me that the next thing coming into my mind is that “a shut mouth also catches no food or drinks.” He loved to go out for dinner and enjoy good wine with his peers, where he was both cheerful and serious. However, he also liked to mingle with local people in the typical Tyrolean “Wirtshaus” when his time allowed him to do so. He cycled into his office when weather permitted and still played soccer with his students. For them he was a well-respected and mostly enthusiastic teacher and mentor, and in particular a perfect organizer of scientific stays abroad. He very much promoted their attendances at international conferences. Bernd was also a sly fox when it came to organize money for his students, and his research and numerous successful grant applications, not necessarily always big ones, account for this.

I will conclude my very personal view by mentioning that Bernd was a well-respected member of the famous Innsbruck University Collegium musicum, where he loved to play the violin.

Coming now to his scientific and medical career: After his final school examination (Abitur/Matura) and the obligatory military service, Lothar Bernd Zimmerhackl studied mathematics, physics, and chemistry in Heidelberg, before entering medical school in Berlin and Heidelberg. This somewhat indirect entrance to medicine via natural science revisited when he started with physiological mechanisms of microcirculation (M.D., with Michael Steinhausen, Heidelberg) and renal medullary blood flow in particular (Deutsche Forschungsgesellschaft [DFG] research stay, with C.R. Robertson and R.L. Jamieson, Stanford) before starting his pediatric career in Marburg. Dr. Zimmerhackl was appointed associate professor in Freiburg in 1998 and became the head of the Innsbruck Medical University children's clinic in 2002.

Professor Zimmerhackl was a busy man and always organizing meetings, symposia, and congresses. Before such a congress was history, the next was usually already planned. One of his research topics was renal transplantation, and he organized the International Society for Pediatric Transplantation Congress in Innsbruck in 2005. He was the treasurer of the GPN, the Society of German Pediatric Nephrologists, for many years and opened the door to the East by organizing several meetings with eastern European pediatric societies at the picturesque venue of Villa Blanka in Innsbruck, where many young pediatric researchers from Slovenia, Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic gave their first international talks. It was there in 2007 where he and Radvan Urbanek, Vienna, founded the ES-PCR, the European Society of Pediatric Research of Central European Countries.

Zimmerhackl's favorite subject, however, was the hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS). He initiated many research and clinical studies and contributed to the finding that complement also plays a role in classical HUS.[1] Consequently, he believed from the very first minute, that eculizumab, a humanized monoclonal antibody blocking the terminal complement cascade, would actually clinically confirm the original in vitro findings of the murine N 19–8 prototype[2] and could be a drug of choice in preventing[3] and possibly treating HUS.

Zimmerhackl established an HUS register and a corresponding home page quite a long time ago, http://www.hus-online.at, summarizing details of affected subjects. Several long-term sequelae of HUS patients could be identified, and these results are in preparation for publication. To discuss the data from his research, his patients' long-term clinical symptoms, and preliminary data on eculizumab, he organized two international HUS meetings. Zimmerhackl realized that lessons can also be learned from related diseases (membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis and paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria), and these were therefore part of these symposia. Shortly before the second HUS meeting, Zimmerhackl had his first serious heart attack and could only participate marginally. His research team will carry the torch further and is organizing the third HUS meeting in his honor and memory from May 22 to May 24, 2011, in Innsbruck (http://www.hus-online.at/de/conference_en.html).

Bernd was authentic, as already described in detail, which sadly also accounts for his last months. He could not really accept working at half speed and certainly asked too much from his body in his final weeks.

On the morning of August 27, the world was different: We lost an outstanding scientist, devoted clinician, engaged teacher, and a jolly good fellow. Bernd, we miss you!

REFERENCES

• 1 Orth D, Khan A B, Naim A et al.. Shiga toxin activates complement and binds factor H: evidence for an active role of complement in hemolytic uremic syndrome.  J Immunol. 2009;  182 (10) 6394-6400
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• 2 Würzner R, Schulze M, Happe L et al.. Inhibition of terminal complement complex formation and cell lysis by monoclonal antibodies.  Complement Inflamm. 1991;  8 (5-6) 328-340
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• 3 Zimmerhackl L B, Hofer J, Cortina G et al.. Prophylactic eculizumab after renal transplantation in atypical hemolytic-uremic syndrome.  N Engl J Med. 2010;  362 (18) 1746-1748
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Reinhard WürznerM.D. Ph.D. 

Division of Hygiene & Medical Microbiology, Innsbruck Medical University

Fritz-Pregl-Str. 3, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria

Email: Reinhard.Wuerzner@i-med.ac.at