Hanna Lucia Worliczek

• Dr. rer. nat. Dr. phil.
• PostDoc Position at Bielefeld University

Blick in die Geschichte der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft seit 1948 zum Abschluss des mehrjährigen Forschungsprogramms zum Thema. Mit ihren über 80 Instituten ist die Max-Planck-Gesellschaft nicht nur inhaltlich besonders vielfältig, sondern auch sehr flexibel. Ihre Veränderungen spiegeln auch den Wandel gesellschaftlicher Fragen und Forderungen an die W...

Human congenital toxoplasmosis, caused by primary infections with the parasite Toxoplasma gondii during pregnancy and subsequent transmission to the fetus, has been diagnostically and prognostically challenging since its initial description in 1939. Most acute maternal infections remain subclinical, rendering symptom-based diagnosis impossible. Yet...

Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences, 54(4), 527-534

Congenital human toxoplasmosis, caused by the vertical transmission of the protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii during primary infections in pregnancy, was established as a distinct symptomatic complex around 1940. In 1948, the first robust serological diagnostic test was published. The severity of congenital toxoplasmosis flagged the disease as an...

This chapter (in German) covers the history of cell biology research in the Max Planck Society.

What makes biomedical knowledge specific, sensitive, reliable, or valid? How have biomedical scientists used these evaluative categories in practice throughout the twentieth century? Inspired by these questions, members of the Max Planck Research Group “Practices of Validation in the Biomedical Sciences” will collectively engage to bring together f...

The intracellular protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii was described in 1908 but it took until the 1940s for it to be recognized as a human pathogen of substantial concern, and until the 1970s to unravel its full life cycle. This zoonotic agent can infect all mammals and birds and appears world-wide with a seroprevalence in human adults between ten...

Historical epistemology of the life sciences after 1950 is frequently confronted with phenomena of abundance. This concerns not only the sheer amount of published scientific papers and the number of scientists, but also a steadily increasing quantity of interdisciplinary research fields and scientific journals. This abundance raises the question of...

What can we gain from co‐analyzing experimental cultures, regionalization, and disciplinary phenomena of late twentieth century life sciences under our historiographic looking glass? This essay investigates the potential of such a strategy for the case of cell biology after 1960. By merging perspectives from historical epistemology inspired by the...

The phrase “Seeing is believing”, used by contemporary cell biologists, highlights the pronounced visual culture of modern cell biology and the importance of visual evidence in this discipline which has been present since its formation in the 1940s. Microscopic visualizations have played and continue to play a crucial role in describing, explaining...

The rise and growth of mechanistic thought and explanation has been a central theme in the historiography of biology in the twentieth and twenty first centuries. However, this historiography often treats mechanism and mechanistic thought as a distinct and distinguishable element within biology, one which was more or less uniform, and which possesse...

Cellular reproduction defines life, yet our textbook-level understanding of cell division is limited to a small number of model organisms centered around humans. The horizon on cell division variants is expanded here by advancing insights on the fascinating cell division modes found in the Apicomplexa, a key group of protozoan parasites. The Apicom...

Cellular reproduction defines life, yet our textbook-level understanding of cell division is limited to a small number of model organisms centered around humans. The horizon on cell division variants is expanded here by advancing insights on the fascinating cell division modes found in the Apicomplexa, a key group of protozoan parasites. The Apicom...

In 1956 Honor B. Fell, a major contributor to cell/tissue/organ cul-ture, presented her perspective on the future of tissue culture in relation to morphology. She described an “unnatural divorce between morphology and physiology”, with the former describing the appearance and characteristics of cells and tissues grown in culture, and the latter inv...

Today’s Cell Biology is confronted with a dilemma: Descriptive research tends to be excluded from the reward systems in basic biomedical research. But description as an epistemic practice is perceived (again) as essential for heuristic processes and innovation in the field. Yet, historical references remain vague and no definitions of descriptive r...

During the last decades, visual cultures of the life sciences have become an emerging topic for historians and philosophers of science. Especially the epistemic and representational functions of images seem to be of interest both in academia and for the popularization of scientific knowledge. Although images might have been generated from scientifi...

Immunofluorescence microscopy (IFM) was established as an epistemic tool for Cell Biology during the 1970s by a relatively small number of researchers, mainly based in the USA and Germany, leading to a substantial transformation of the visual culture of the field. In this period, primarily knowledge about subcellular architecture was produced by IF...

Der Fokus dieser Sitzung liegt auf Wissensformen, die sich in der Erforschung der neueren und neuesten Geschichte der Lebenswissenschaften nur sehr eingeschränkt durch schriftliche Quellen erschließen lassen. Beispiele dafür sind etwa visuelles Wissen/Bilderwissen oder Tacit Knowledge. Darüber hinaus schließt diese Problematik aber auch nicht-versc...

Cystoisospora (syn. Isospora) suis is a leading cause of diarrheal disease in neonatal piglets. To address the possibility of maternal immunization against C. suis infection six non-naïve pregnant sows were superinfected with 100,000 oocysts two weeks ante partum and compared to non-superinfected animals. Their piglets were infected with 1000 oocys...

Infections of neonatal piglets with Cystoisospora suis are responsible for substantial economic losses in pig production. To investigate kinetics of T-cell populations which are possibly involved in this infection, lymphocytes from blood, spleen, mesenteric lymph nodes and the jejunal mucosa of infected and non-infected piglets were investigated by...

Cystoisospora suis is the most pathogenic species of coccidia in suckling piglets, affecting them predominantly within their first three weeks of life. The clinical signs of neonatal cystoisosporosis include watery diarrhea and wasting, leading to significant economic losses for the farmer. Since neonatal piglets have an immature immune system, col...

Theileria spp. are intracellular protozoa transmitted by ixodid ticks. T. parva and T. annulata are highly pathogenic and responsible for serious disease in domestic ruminants in tropical and subtropical countries. However, asymptomatic findings of Theileria sp. in wild ungulates lead to the suggestion that wild ruminants play a role as reservoirs...

Coccidian parasites are of major importance in animal production, public health and food safety. The most frequently used representative in basic research on this group is Toxoplasma gondii . Although this parasite is well investigated there is no adequate in vitro model for its sexual development available and knowledge on this important life cycl...

Development of I. suis merozoites in IPEC-J2 culture comparing 5% (grey) and 1.25% (white) fetal calf serum. Results of semi-quantitative evaluation of intra- and extracellular merozoites are shown; presence of parasitic stages was scored from 0 (negative) to 3 (many/field of vision). Host cells were infected with a ratio of sporozoites: cells of 1...

Sporulated oocysts of I. suis contaminating the infection material after 9 days in culture. (A) degraded oocyst with granular content in the sporocyst but intact walls attached to or within a host cell (IPEC-J2); (B) degraded oocysts with collapsed oocyst and sporocyst walls attached to or within a host cell; bar = 20 µm. (TIF)

Development of I. suis gametocytes and oocysts in IPEC-J2 culture and host cell condition comparing 5% (grey) and 1.25% (white) fetal calf serum. Results of semi-quantitative evaluation of intracellular gametocytes, oocysts and host cell condition are shown; presence of parasitic stages was scored from 0 (negative) to 3 (many/field of vision), cell...

Significant influence of the infection dose on parasite development and cell condition over time in culture medium with 5% FCS. (PDF)

Quantification of immunohistochemical results constitutes an important tool in the analysis of cells and tissue that is not readily replaced by other techniques. For reliable quantification, it is essential to consider factors such as tissue fixation and tissue sampling. We report a study on the model of the intestine of Isospora suis-infected pigl...

Isospora suis, the causative agent of porcine neonatal coccidiosis (isosporosis), was identified as an important pathogen of pigs only in the 1970s with the intensification of pig production in industrialised countries. The parasite is diagnosed with high prevalences in neonatal piglets and is associated with considerable economic problems due to d...

Porcine coccidiosis caused by Isospora suis is one of the leading causes of neonatal diarrhea in suckling piglets. Currently the only registered drug for metaphylaxis is toltrazuril. To evaluate the effect of treatment on piglets from 7 Austrian farms without and 8 Austrian farms with toltrazuril application we examined oocyst excretion (including...

Research in osteoporosis, which is a complex systemic disease, demands suitable large animal models. In pigs, most research has been done in growing minipigs, which probably are not ideal models for postmenopausal osteoporosis. Therefore, our aim was to analyze the effects of ovariectomy (OVX) and nutritive calcium shortage on multiparous Large Whi...

In den ersten Lebenswochen findet bei Saugferkeln kaum eine eigenständi- ge Antikörperproduktion statt. Die Übertragung von maternalen Antikör- pern (AK) über Kolostrum bzw. Milch ist bei vielen Infektionskrankheiten essentiell für den Schutz der Jungtiere. Inwieweit AK gegen Isospora suis, den Erreger der Saugferkelkokzidiose, auf die Ferkel übert...

SUMMARY: Highly purified antigen and appropriate controls are essential for antigen-specific immunoassays. In the case of Isospora suis, the causative agent of neonatal porcine coccidiosis, the only current source of antigen is oocysts isolated from faeces. The aim of this study was to develop a procedure for high-grade purification of I. suis oocy...

Die von Isospora suis verursachte Saugferkelkokzidiose kann schwere Durchfälle auslösen und führt zu finanziellen Einbußen in der Schweineproduktion. Die Kolonisation des Darms durch Bakterien könnte durch I. suis beeinflusst oder gestört und damit die Mortalität und die Empfänglichkeit für typische Erkrankungen nach dem Absetzten erhöht werden. Um...

Isospora suis, a common intestinal parasite of piglets, causes neonatal porcine coccidiosis, which results in reduced and uneven weaning weights and economic losses in pig production. Nevertheless, there are no detailed studies available on the immune response to I. suis. The aim of this study was to carry out phenotypical characterization of lymph...

Porcine neonatal coccidiosis is caused by the protozoan Isospora suis and affects mainly piglets in the first three weeks of life. High morbidity with diarrhoea and reduced weight gain lead to economic losses, affecting pig-breeding worldwide. Infection causes damage of the mucosal surface in the jejunum and ileum and transient non-haemorrhagic dia...

Data from 13 trials involving 124 suckling piglets experimentally infected with Isospora suis were evaluated for the effects of infection dose and age on the clinical and parasitological outcome of infection in four different models, infections with 1,000 oocysts on the 1(st) day of life (d.o.l.) (model 1; 9 piglets/3 litters), 1,000 oocysts on the...

A polyphasic study was undertaken to clarify the taxonomic position of endospore-forming strains 433-D9, 433-E17 and 121-X1. BOX-PCR-generated fingerprints indicated that they may be members of a single species. 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity demonstrated that a representative of this group, 433-D9, is affiliated closely with Bacillus arvi DSM 1...

Isospora suis, an intestinal protozoan parasite of swine, is the causative agent of neonatal coccidiosis, a disease with high morbidity in affected pig-breeding units and consequently of high economic importance. Infection leads to damage of the mucosal surface in the jejunum and ileum and to non-haemorrhagic diarrhoea. As a result, weight gain of...

A set of 20 Mollicutes strains representing different lines of descent, including the type species of the genus Mycoplasma, Mycoplasma mycoides, Acholeplasma laidlawii and a strain of Mesoplasma, were subjected to polar lipid and fatty acid analyses in order to evaluate their suitability for classification purposes within members of this group. Com...

A Gram-positive, aerobic, rod-shaped, motile, endospore-forming bacterium was isolated from pasteurized milk from Bavaria, Germany. 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities indicated that strain WSBC 24001(T) was most closely related to Virgibacillus species (95.3-96.1 %), Oceanobacillus species (95.6-95.7 %), Bacillus firmus IAM 12464(T) (95.5 %) and B...

Two bacterial strains, designated D-1,5a(T) and D-1,5b, were isolated from a medieval wall painting in the chapel of Castle Herberstein, Styria (Austria). The Gram-positive, heterotrophic, aerobic, spore-forming rods showed nearly identical whole-cell protein patterns, identical genomic fingerprints and identical physiological profiles, demonstrati...