The Ambassadors - PROFILE - Vol.3, Issue 2 (July 2000)

The Journey of the International German Scientist,
Prof. Dr. Karl Sperling & his Cartoon Booklet

When I met Prof. Karl Sperling following his lecture about the Chernobyl tragedy of 1986 in a genetics conference in Oman, I discovered he is the co-editor of the genetic cartoon booklet with Dr. Martin Digweed entitled, "Gene-an-tics". The book is a collection of cartoons in and around genetics that was first exhibited on the occasion of the 27th meeting of the European Society of Human Genetics, in conjunction with the 7th meeting of the Society of Human Genetics in Germany held in Berlin, May 1995.The production of this book was supported by The MOLBIOL Berlin and Herolab GmbH Laborgeräte.

Dr. Sperling's story reminded me of many medical doctors and scientists who represent a hybrid of science and art. One of them is the renowned Russian author, Anton Chekhov (1860-1904) who lived in conflict between his talent as a short-story writer and his profession as a medical doctor. While Checkov stuggled to conquer one or the other of his passions, Prof. Sperling resolved this contestation between science and art, devoting all his career to genetic studies, without undoing the artist within.

In 1976, the 35-year-old German scientist, Dr. Karl Sperling, was appointed as Professor and Head of the Institute of Human Genetics, Medical Faculty in Humboldt-University Berlin. He studied biology, chemistry and geography at Hamburg, Freiburg and Berlin universities and has more than 200 original publications, review articles and book contributions. His research interests are molecular human genetics, cytogenetics and genetic epidemiology. He is currently the co-editor of the Journal of Human Genetics. He was the organizer of the 7th International Congress of Human Genetics in 1986 and the 27th annual meeting of the Society of Human Genetics in 1995, both held in Berlin.

He is a member of the advisory board of several scientific genetic institutes and universities, and considered an expert of the German Society for the Advancement of Scientific Research. He is a member of both American and European societies of human genetics and honorary member of the Czech Medical Society on top of his fellowships in a variety of German scientific societies.

Among 53 of his recent publications since 1994, Prof. Karl Sperling studied Angelman Syndrome, epidermolytic palmoplantar keratoderma, Waardenburg Syndrome, Cystic Fibrosis, deafness and many chromosome breakage syndromes.

Dr. Sperling noticed a significant increase in trisomy-21 in Berlin, 9 months after the Chernobyl reactor accident. As a scientist, he tried to answer the question with his colleagues; is this a temporal correlation or causal relation? (Sperling et al. 1994, BMJ, 309:158-162). Prof. Sperling also tackled the subject of whether low-dose irradiation has an effect on chromosomal non-disjunction in man. In 1998, his data was documented in "Progress in Human Genetics", edited by Singh JR, Sperling K, and Neitzel H, and published by Printwell, Amritsar, India.

In the 1st Joint SQU/MOH Genetics Symposium held in Muscat, Oman last January, Prof. Sperling presented an interesting lecture entitled, "Epidemiological aspects of chromosomal aneuploidies: genetic risk of low dose radiation." In it, he mentioned that there was a clustering of Down Syndrome births in Berlin in January 1987, 9 months after the radioactive clouds of the Chernobyl reactor accident had passed over Berlin. His findings underlie the need for national surveillance programs and international comparisons to identify environmental risk factors causing human aneuploidy.

Prof. Karl Sperling

Chernobyl Nuclear Plant (Belarus) before explosion of April 1986

Anton P. Chekhov (1860-1904)

Interestingly the famous book entitled, "Genetics and Malformations in Art" written by Prof. Dr. med. Jurgen Kunze (Berlin) and Dr. rer. soc. Irmgard Nippert (Munster), published in 1986 by Grosse Verlag Berlin, acknowledged Prof. Sperling for his continuous advice, criticism and stimulation in the preparation of this textbook with 170 illustrations. Expanding on his artistic interests, Prof. Sperling and his colleague Dr. Digweed from Institut fur Humangenetik, Virchow Klinikum Berlin, edited a 90-page entertaining book with a compilation of various genetic cartoons entitled, "Gene-an-tics". The majority of exhibited cartoons are contributions from members of the European Society of Human Genetics, with particularly strong contingent from the English and German speaking countries. Regarding the lack of cartoons dealing with genetics from Japan, the famous Japanese geneticist, Prof. El Matsunga, noted that this may be due to the prevailing prejudice of fatalism attached with the Japanese term of 'Iden' (genetic).

Digweed and Sperling mentioned that humorous sketches or cartoons were used already in ancient Egypt, although the word 'cartoon' was coined in 1843 by the British magazine Punch. They also discussed the evolution of genetics-oriented cartoons over the years.

The book is divided into 5 chapters: The Man Behind, Me and My Genes, Genetic Counseling, Clo(w)ning About, and Evolution. Each chapter containing cartoons pertaining to the specified genetic-related issue. Digweed and Sperling mentioned that, "All of the cartoons in the 'Me and my genes' chapter are relatively young and would not have been possible without the Human Genome Project and a recent public realization that genes are real things which can be isolated, named and characterized."

With the kind permission of Prof. Karl Sperling, we have selected some of the cartoons in the book to display in this section. To inquire about or order the book, contact Prof. Sperling directly at karl.sperling@charite.de. All profits from the sale of this book are donated to the European Genetic Support Groups.