| Gongylonema neoplasticum | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Nematoda |
| Class: | Chromadorea |
| Order: | Rhabditida |
| Family: | Gongylonematidae |
| Genus: | Gongylonema |
| Species: | G. neoplasticum
|
| Binomial name | |
| Gongylonema neoplasticum (Fibiger & Ditlevsen, 1914) Ditlevsen, 1918
| |
Gongylonema neoplasticum (more famously as Spiroptera carcinoma) is a roundworm parasite of rats.[1] It was discovered by a Danish physician Johannes Fibiger in 1907. Fibiger and Hjalmar Ditlevsen made a formal description in 1914 as Spiroptera (Gongylonema) neoplastica. But Ditlevsen gave the final valid name Gongylonema neoplasticum in 1918. The nematode is transmitted between rats and cockroaches.
When Fibiger discovered the nematode in the stomach of rats, he found that the stomach had tumours. Inspired by the possible link of the nematode and tumour, he performed experiments to induce tumours with nematode infection. He published his experimental success in 1913. The nematode experiment earned Fibiger the 1926 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, but under controversial circumstances. Moreover, it was later proven that Fibiger came to a wrong conclusion, that the nematode is not carcinogenic. Erling Norrby, who had served as the Permanent Secretary of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and Professor and Chairman of Virology at the Karolinska Institute, declared Fibiger's Nobel Prize as "one of the biggest blunders made by the Karolinska Institute."[2]
- ^ Paramasvaran S, Sani RA, Hassan L, et al. (April 2009). "Endo-parasite fauna of rodents caught in five wet markets in Kuala Lumpur and its potential zoonotic implications" (PDF). Trop Biomed. 26 (1): 67–72. PMID 19696729.
- ^ Norrby, Erling (2010). Nobel Prizes and Life Sciences. Singapore: World Scientific Publishing Co. p. 115. ISBN 978-9-81-429937-4.