George Rosenkranz

George Rosenkranz (born György Rosenkranz; 20 August 1916 – 23 June 2019) was a pioneering Hungarian-born Mexican scientist in the field of steroid chemistry, who used native Mexican plant sources as raw materials.

He was born in Hungary, studied in Switzerland and emigrated to the Americas to escape the Nazis, eventually settling in Mexico.

At Syntex corporation in Mexico City, Rosenkranz assembled a research group of organic chemists that included future leaders from around the world, such as Carl Djerassi, Luis E. Miramontes and Alejandro Zaffaroni.

Revolutionary advances in the understanding of steroid drugs and their production occurred under Dr Rosenkranz's direction.

Syntex synthesized a progestin used in some of the first combined oral contraceptive pills and numerous other useful steroids.

Under Rosenkranz's leadership, Syntex became "a powerful international force in the development of steroidal pharmaceuticals", and "a pioneer of biotechnology" in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Rosenkranz was born in 1916 in Budapest, Hungary, the son of Etel (Weiner) and Bertalan Rosenkranz.

Rosenkranz studied chemical engineering at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, where he received his doctorate.

His mentor, future Nobel Prize winner Lavoslav Ružička, began Rosenkranz's interest in steroid research.

However, Nazi sympathizers were active in Zurich.

Ružička shielded Rosenkranz and other Jewish colleagues, but their presence put their mentor at risk.

They had formed the company in 1944 to work with Russell Marker, a Penn State professor, and sought to synthesize the hormone progesterone from diosgenin-containing Mexican yams, which would eventually give rise to the Mexican barbasco trade.

After a disagreement Marker left, taking his steroid knowledge with him.

Rosenkranz was recruited to replace him, and moved to Mexico City in 1945.

Rosenkranz faced the challenge of analyzing Marker's samples to identify their ingredients and reverse engineering Marker's chemical production processes.

He didn't have much help: his initial staff included nine lab assistants and only one other chemist, and Mexico lacked a PhD program in chemistry.

When he couldn't find enough fully trained local chemists, Rosenkranz recruited researchers from Mexico and around the world.

Rosenkranz also helped to create an institute of chemistry, the Instituto de Química (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México), now considered "a flagship in Mexico's ethnobotanical research".

He was able to attract significant synthetic organic chemists as researchers and instructors and to obtain funding to expand programs for the training of organic chemists.

He and his colleagues regularly worked at Syntex during the day and then spent the evenings teaching chemistry.

Rosenkranz also helped to start the Institute for Molecular Biology in Palo Alto.

Attracting young chemists such as Carl Djerassi, Luis E. Miramontes and Alejandro Zaffaroni was critical to Syntex's first big success.

Miramontes, George Rosenkranz and Djerassi synthesis of norethindrone, later proven to be an effective pregnancy inhibitor, led to an infusion of capital in Syntex and Mexican steroid pharma industry.

The Mayo clinic had reported that the steroid hormone cortisone was an effective anti-inflammatory, capable of relieving painful rheumatoid arthritis symptoms.

However, as described by Djerassi, "Until 1951, the only source of cortisone was through an extraordinarily complex process of 36 different chemical transformations starting from animal bile acids."

Several prominent groups of international scientists were attempting to be the first to synthesize cortisone.

Rosenkranz's team started working in two shifts, and their dedication paid off.

Rosenkranz stepped down as CEO in 1982, at the age of 65.

"We got together and we decided to leave Switzerland to protect him," Rosenkranz said in a 2002 article for the Pan American Health Organization's magazine.

Ružička arranged an academic position for Rosenkranz in Quito, Ecuador.

While Rosenkranz was waiting in Havana, Cuba, for a ship to Ecuador, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.

The United States immediately entered World War II.

Unable to go to Ecuador, Rosenkranz accepted the Cuban president Fulgencio Batista's offer allowing refugees to stay in the country and work.

He found work at the Vieta Plasencia Lab, where he was asked to develop treatments for venereal disease.

The important role of hormones in human health was already known, but ways to synthesize them were unknown.

George Rosenkranz's skills as a chemist attracted the interest of Emeric Somlo, a Hungarian immigrant, and Dr. Federico Lehmann at Syntex in Mexico City, Mexico.

In 2012, he was awarded the Biotechnology Heritage Award, in recognition of his significant contributions to the development of biotechnology through discovery, innovation, and public understanding.

He turned 100 in August 2016.

Rosenkranz was also an American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) Grand Life Master at his hobby of duplicate bridge, with more than 13,000 masterpoints and 12 NABC titles (below).

He wrote or co-wrote more than 10 books on bridge.