In memoriam of Kázmér Jobst (1924-2016)

Prof. Dr. Kázmér (Kasimir) Jobst passed away on Nov. 5 2016 shortly before completing his 92 year. Prof. Jobst was a distinguished chemist, histochemist and molecular pathologist. His professional career started, continued and climaxed at The University of Pécs, Hungary. During the first period of his research he developed polarization optical analyses of isolated DNA fibrils. Then he studied the kinetics of the Feulgen reaction upon extended hydrolysis. He could show the birefringence of chromatin in cell nuclei isolated by sucrose density gradient centrifugation in Tyrodeand Hank media. With the help of so-called topo-optical reactions (histochemical reactions with polarization optical detection) he could prove the oriented structure of single-stranded DNA in formalin-fixed cell nuclei. In HeLa cell cultures he found – after treatment with non-ionic detergents – a network of filaments that encoil the cell nucleus. Later this fibrillary network was shown to be identical with the „actin-like cytoskeleton“ of bacteria. Jobst introduced a new reaction into histology, i.e. the selective staining of aldehyde-oxo groups in cells after blocking with NaBH4. From 1968 till 1992 he served as director of the clinical chemistry central laboratory of The University Pécs medical school. In 2015 he received the Gold Medal for distinguished scientific and academic achievements from the Hungarian Academy of Science.