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D.2. History of Oral Biology |
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The Beginnings of Oral Biology in pre-war Vienna. Oral Biology as a discipline was started in the early part of the 20th century by a group of Viennese physician-dentists with a specialized background in anatomy and pathology. In the unique environment of pre-war Vienna, they established a sound tradition of oral histopathology embedded into clinical questions and problems. The Viennese oral biology tradition grew under the mentorship of pre-eminent teachers at the Viennese Medical Faculty, including Julius Tandler and Bernard Gottlieb. With the rise of Nazi-Germany and the demise of Vienna’s academic establishment, three of the most prominent members of this group emigrated to Chicago: Harry Sicher, Balint Orban, and Joseph-Peter Weinmann. A new beginning in Chicago was facilitated by pre-existing ties with Loyola College of Dental Surgery in Chicago and on the other side through the untiring effort of University of Illinois College of Dentistry Dean Isaac Schour. As a consequence, Joseph-Peter Weinmann became a faculty member in the Department of Pathology and was later joined by Julia Meyer, who had fled from Switzerland. Both Harry Sicher and Balint Orban had their primary appointment at Loyola College of Dental Surgery, but were regular guests at the University of Illinois. The group of émigrés was called the Vienna group of Illinois because of their heritage and because of their remaining ties to Vienna’s past. |
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| Figure: Dr. Bernhard Gottlieb, Baylor's pre-eminent scholar, was one of the pioneers of modern research in oral biology. An update of our current research in this area has been presented in a number of public lectures, and during the Oral Biology and Periodontal Histopathology classes. While Gottlieb lived and taught at Baylor College of Dentistry in Dallas/Texas, his students and collaborators Harry Sicher, Joseph-Peter Weinmann, and Balint Orban had moved to Loyola College of Dental Surgery and to the University of Illinois. Here in Chicago, they continued Vienna's exceptional Oral Biology tradition and formed the Vienna Group of Illinois. They books and scientific work had a major impact on dental research and scholarship in the postwar United States and until today. The Figure shows from left to right: Maury Maasler, Balint Orban, Isaac Schour, Joseph-Peter Weinmann, and Harry Sicher. | ||
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A Diverse and Multidisciplinary group. The Viennese group was later joined by Maury Massler, whose wife was from Vienna, and by E. Lloyd du Brul, who had been a surgeon in Patton’s army during World War II and whose wife had studied piano in Berlin with Arthur Schnabel. Another member of this group, Rudolf Kronfeld, had emigrated to Chicago already in 1929, but had died prematurely in 1941. Between 1940 and 1942, Helmut Zander from Southern Germany was a faculty member at Northwestern University. Especially the University of Illinois was a rich intellectual environment for the Viennese clinician-scientists to continue their work, amidst pre-eminent clinical specialty scholars such as Allan G. Brodie (Orthodontics) and Edgar Coolidge (Endodontics, primary appointment at Loyola). Both Loyola College of Dental Surgery and the University of Illinois College of Dentistry were located in close proximity on Wood street, and the majority of the professors would teach and do research at both places. Deans of the University of Illinois such as Isaac Schour and Allan G. Brodie fostered and nurtured the multidisciplinary interactions with basic science histologists and anatomists, as well as clinical specialties such as endodontics, orthodontics, and oral pathology. The Impact of the Vienna Group at the University of Illinois on Dental Education in America. In Chicago, the Viennese Clinician-Scientists continued their research and scholarship. Countless scientific papers were published on questions of Oral Pathology and the histological evaluation of clinical observations. Initially, the Vienna scholars translated several originally German textbooks by their mentor Julius Tandler into English. Next to these, a series of new textbooks were born in Chicago. There was Kronfeld’s “Histopathology of the Teeth and their Surrounding Structures”, Sicher’s “Oral Anatomy” (later edited by E. Lloyd du Brul), “Bone and Bones” by Weinmann and Sicher, and, probably most importantly, “Orban’s Histology and Embryology” (later edited by Harry Sicher). Together, these textbooks and publications educated generations of American dental students and transformed American dentistry into a biological science. Today, the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Dentistry prides itself of this epochal heritage and is engaged in the conservation of the University of Illinois Oral Biology Legacy. |
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Luan, X., and Diekwisch, T.G.H. (2007). Vienna - Chicago: the cultural transformation of the model system of the un-opposed molar. Bioessays 29, 819-830. Holliday, S., Schneider, B., Galang, M.T., Fukui, T., Yamane, A., Luan, X., and Diekwisch, T.G.H. (2005). Bones, Teeth, and Genes: A Genomic Homage to Harry Sicher’s “Axial Movement of Teeth“. World J. Orthodontics 6, 61-70. |
