Casimir Funk Biography

Casimir Funk was a Polish-born American biochemist who pioneered research on dietary requirements and vitamins, especially vitamin B1 which is also known as thiamine. He is also recognized for his research into animal hormones, and the biochemical aspects of diabetes, cancer and ulcers.

Casimir was born in Warsaw on February 23, 1884, the son of a well-known dermatologist. He attended the University of Bern, Switzerland and in 1904 obtained his Ph.D. in organic chemistry at age 20. Prior to emigrating to the United States in 1915, he worked at the Pasteur Institute in Paris and the Lister Institute in London. In 1920, he became a naturalized American citizen. Funk returned to Warsaw in 1923 under the sponsorship of the Rockefeller Foundation to assume the role of Director of the Biochemistry Department of the State Institute of Hygiene. He left this position in 1927 due to political turmoil and went to Paris where he founded the Casa Biochemica, a privately funded research foundation. Funk abandoned this when France was invaded by Germany at the start World War II in 1939. Funk returned to the United States to work for the United States Vitamin Corporation and in 1940 became the president of the Funk Foundation for Medical Research. He retained this position until he died on November 20, 1967, in Albany, New York.

Funk is best known as a pioneer in the study of vitamins. He began his research while at the Lister Institute where he attempted to find a cure for beriberi. He isolated an amine (a organic compound of nitrogen) which was known to cure a beriberi-like disease in pigeons. He suggested that deficiency diseases such as beriberi, rickets and scurvy resulted from a dietary deficiency. Funk postulated (wrongly it was later proved) that all deficiency diseases could be cured by amines for which he coined the term vitamine. This was later shortened to vitamin in 1920 by Sir Jack Drummond. Funk continued to search unsuccessfully for a cure to beriberi in humans. Robert Williams is credited with having isolated vitamin B1 (thiamin) from rice polishings as a cure for beriberi in 1934. Funk analyzed the molecular structure of thiamin and synthesized it in 1936.

Funk performed extensive research into male sex hormones and animal hormones. In 1929, he was able to extract the male sex hormone androsterone from human urine in a crude form. He contributed to the understanding of the biochemistry of cancer, ulcers and diabetes.