ANCERL o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2006-07-18 published
Otto SIREK,
Endocrinologist (1921-2006)
He was one of the last surviving scientists who worked with Charles
BEST, the co-discoverer of insulin
By Carol COOPER,
Special to the Globe and Mail, Page S9
Aurora, Ontario -- Otto
SIREK's
Friends joked that the year of
his birth determined his future. The endocrinologist was born
in 1921, the year insulin was discovered. But it was his ability,
not his birthday, that led to Doctor
SIREK's postdoctoral fellowship
with Charles
BEST.
Recruited by the co-discoverer of insulin
to join his lab, the Czechoslovak native came to Canada, along
with his wife, Anna, then a pediatric surgeon.
The SIREKs' year-long stay became permanent, as did Otto
SIREK's
study of diabetes. With Doctor
BEST as his personal and professional
mentor and his wife as his research partner for more than 30 years,
Dr. SIREK published more than 100 papers, many of them co-authored
with Anna. He was one of the last surviving scientists who worked
with Doctor
BEST and, like him, became internationally renowned.
When the
SIREKs arrived in Toronto on a snowy April day in 1950,
Dr. BEST served as both the head of the department of physiology
at the University of Toronto and the faculty of medicine's Banting
and Best Department of Medical Research.
While Anna
SIREK undertook research at the Hospital for Sick
Children, her husband worked with Doctor
BEST. By 1953, Doctor
BEST
and Doctor
SIREK had contributed definitive knowledge to the understanding
of diabetes: Before their studies, many scientists believed that
insulin was the sole hormone responsible for physical growth
and that all other hormones involved worked through the agency
of insulin. The pair proved that, while insulin needed to be
present for physical growth, some hormones, such as testosterone
and growth hormone, acted independently of it.
The SIREKs, meanwhile, had put down roots and, at Doctor
BEST's
insistence, stayed in Canada. On his recommendation, they purchased
a house 10 minutes from the university and around the corner
from him. They lived there for 50 years.
Proximity to the University of Toronto helped with Doctor
BEST's
next suggestion.
Dr. SIREK's studies involved dogs in which hormonal deficiencies
were created by the surgical removal of the pancreas and pituitary
gland. Colleagues joked about his lack of surgical skills, so
Dr. BEST brought in someone who had them.
Breaking the rules that said husband and wife could not hold
positions in the same faculty or department, Doctor
BEST insisted
that Anna SIREK work with her husband. Carrying out research
as her husband's equal as well as operating on the dogs, Anna
slipped home to have lunch with their four children.
Playing on the original pronunciation of the couple's surname,
shirek, Friends sometimes referred to the pair as Herek and Sherek.
"He was a good partner for life," Anna
SIREK said. "He would
share the work of the children. My husband supported me in every
way I could have been supported."
The couple proved the only correct method to measure blood insulin
levels was by the specific laboratory method called radioimmunoassay
studied the relationship between pituitary growth hormone and
release of insulin and glucagon, the hormones which control the
blood sugar levels in the body; and the cardiovascular complication
of diabetes.
Along with Mladen
VRANIC, the pair determined that removal of
the pituitary gland led to normal glucose production by the liver,
linking one aspect of the high blood sugar with the pituitary
gland.
On the birth of their first child, Ann, Doctor
BEST advised the
SIREKs that, if they raised their child properly, papers written
by SIREK,
SIREK and
SIREK would eventually be published. One
was.
Otto SIREK met Anna when both attended the same school in Bratislava,
then in Czechoslovakia but now the capital of Slovakia. Otakar
Viktor SIREK was born in that city, the only child of a land
surveyor from Moravia and a woman from Vienna.
One of the girls became class president, with Doctor
SIREK as leader
of the opposition. Their political rivalry and keen competition
for top marks became Friendship, and then love, as Anna and Otakar
proceeded together through high school and then medical school
at Comenius University in Bratislava. They graduated in 1946.
An award for top marks was offered by the president of Czechoslovakia.
As it happened, both Otakar and Anna were equally deserving.
The dilemma was solved by the university's rector, who suggested
that, since in old Roman law husband and wife were regarded as
one person, they should marry so both could receive the award.
They did. The award included a year of post-graduate study. The
newlyweds moved to Sweden, where Otto
SIREK began his research
in diabetes and Anna
SIREK hers in surgery. With the Communist
takeover of Czechoslovakia in 1948, the couple's families encouraged
them to stay in Sweden, where Doctor
SIREK added the country's language
to his English, German and native Slovak.
He began to publish internationally, attracted Doctor
BEST's attention
and was invited for a fellowship. In a lecture given to the Japan
Diabetes
Association in Tokyo in 1994, Doctor
SIREK described Doctor
BEST
as a dedicated scientist and efficient organizer with little
patience for bureaucratic excesses.
One of Doctor
BEST's favourite expressions, according to Anna
SIREK,
was: "Otto, in your spare time, could you…?"
Under Doctor
BEST,
Doctor
SIREK completed his PhD and began teaching.
Eventually, he became a full professor at the university. Among
other awards, Doctor
SIREK was honoured with the Starr Medal of
the university's faculty of medicine in 1958 and the Charles H.
Best Prize for outstanding work in the field of experimental
diabetes. In addition, he helped start the Canadian Workshop
on Diabetes, a convention on the disease that was held nine times
during 11 years. As well, postdoctoral fellows came to study
with him, and he and his wife held many visiting professorships
in countries such as Israel and Iran.
Otto SIREK retired in 1987. He donated his books and papers to
a university in Shenyang, China, where a library is named for
him.
A humble and deeply religious man, Doctor
SIREK treated everyone
equally and was universally well-liked. He loved opera, attending
live performances and spending Saturday afternoons listening
to it on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. He counted among
his Friends Karel
ANCERL, a past conductor of the Toronto Symphony.
In the 1994 Japan lecture, Doctor
SIREK also said: "I feel privileged
that life has given me the opportunity to develop my intellectual
and professional abilities in harmony with my wife, my most faithful
ally. I am immensely grateful to Doctor
BEST for providing an environment
for peaceful and productive work."
Otakar Viktor
SIREK was born in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia, on
December 21, 1921. He died in Toronto on May 5. He leaves his
wife, Anna; children Ann, Jan Peter and Terese; and 10 grandchildren.
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ANCO o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.toronto_star 2006-03-29 published
ANCO,
Mary
Peacefully, at Livingstone Lodge on Monday, March 27th, 2006
in her 97th year. Beloved wife of the late Stephen. Dearly loved
mother of the late Richard and his wife Joan; Ronald and his
wife Frances and Donald and his wife Eleanor. Dear grandmother
of Lynn, Carolyn, Chris, Cathy, Connie, Stephen and Sharon and
great-grandmother of 10. Dear sister of Joe
ROBERTS and his wife
Helen and the late Barney
ROBERTS and his wife
Marge.
Friends
will be received at the "Scarborough Chapel" of McDougall and
Brown, 2900 Kingston Road (one block east of St. Clair Ave. E.),
416-267-4656 on Thursday, March 30th from 2-4 and 7-9 p.m. Chapel
service will be held on Friday, March 31st, 2006 at 11 a.m. Reception
in the Arbor Lounge followed by interment at Prospect Cemetery.
In lieu of flowers, donations to your favourite charity would
be appreciated.
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