Andrew Czeizel
03-04-1935 – 10-08-2015
On August 10, 2015, Hungary lost one of its distinguished scientists: Dr. Andrew Czeizel – medical geneticist, teratologist, epidemiologist and one of the world experts in human congenital anomalies – passed away in Budapest after a valiant battle with myeloid leukemia (diagnosed in May 2013). He remained active nearly to the end of his life.
Andrew had his medical education (1953--1959) in Budapest (Semmelweis University for Medical Sciences) where he received his M. D (1959) and Ph. D (1963) degrees. His thesis research was on “The Pathogenesis of fetal abnormalities”. In subsequent years he focused on the aetiology of common isolated congenital abnormalities in Hungary. On the basis of these studies, he was awarded the D.Sc in Medical Sciences (1978).
He started his professional career as a research fellow at the National Institute of Hygiene (NIH) in 1959 and became Head of the newly established Laboratory of Human Genetics in 1973 and served in this capacity until 1988. He took on the additional role of Director of WHO Collaborating Centre for the Community Control of Hereditary Diseases (1984--1998) and also became Head of the newly established Department of Human Genetics and Teratology (1988--1998) in NIH, a position which he held until retirement in 1998. In the period 1996--1998, he was the Chief Director of National Institute of Health Promotion and from 1991 to 1998, he added the Scientific directorship of the Foundation for the Community Control of Hereditary Diseases to his portfolio, a position which he held until his death.
His major contributions in the area of public health include the establishment of (a) the Hungarian Congenital Abnormality Registry in 1970 – he was its principal architect; (b) Hungarian Case-Control Surveillance of Congenital Abnormalities in 1980; and (c) Budapest Monitoring System of Self-poisoned Pregnant Women in 1980. The first of these remains an unique resource not only for assessing the load of such conditions and their spatiotemporal trends in the population but also from the point of view of addressing the impact of environmental agents. The second, as of now, contains data on the highest number of cases and controls with prospective medically-recorded exposures and conditions (drugs and maternal diseases) and has been used in several international collaborations. The establishment of the monitoring system for self-poisoned pregnant women was dictated by the consideration that such women represent a unique “disaster epidemiological model” for the study of teratogenic and mutagenic effects of chemicals.
On the clinical side, he played a pivotal role (a) in the Genetic counseling clinic which was founded in 1973 in NIH and the so-called “information-guided genetic counseling” was introduced in Hungary and (b) in the introduction of periconceptional care/service in 1984; at the request of WHO, he organized a national network in 1989 for this purpose, first of its kind in the world. This provided the opportunity to organize a randomized control trial to show the effectiveness of periconceptional multivitamin supplementation (containing a physiological dose of 0.8 mg folic acid) for the reduction of first occurrence of neural tube defects, in addition to similar reduction of cardiovascular malformations, urinary tract defects and congenital limb defects.
Andrew has authored or co-authored over 645 publications in international scientific journals and among them were periodicals like The Lancet, New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, BMJ, American Journal of Medical Genetics, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, European Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Journal of Maternal Fetal and Neonatal Medicine. He also had authored several scientific and other health-related books.
He was one of the 7 founders of the International Clearinghouse for the Birth Defects Monitoring System (Chairman in 1982) and was given the honor of being the President of the European Environmental Mutagen Society (1988-1989) and Vice President of the 8th International Congress of Human Genetics, Washington, DC, 1991. In the 1980s, he participated in the activities of the International Commission for Protection Against Environmental Mutagens and Carcinogens (ICPEMC) as a member of its Committee 5 on Mutation Epidemiology. In the 1990s, he played a similar role in the work of the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) as a member of the Task Group of its Committee 1 on Risk Estimation for Multifactorial Diseases. He was fascinated by highly gifted and talented individuals (‘geniuses’) and was the founder-President of the Hungarian Society for High Ability (1994--2004).
He was a member of the editorial board of several international scientific journals among which were: American Journal of Medical Genetics, Journal of Medical Genetics, Human Genetics and, Congenital Anomalies. He has received numerous honors both nationally [e.g., Award of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (1976, 1979), Grand Cross of the Hungarian Republic (1995), Semmelweis Award of the Hungarian State, 2014) and internationally (e.g., Kennedy Award in the USA (2000), Certificate of the US National Council on Folic Acid (2002), Meinhard von Pfaundler Prize for Pediatric Prevention (German Child Heath Foundation).
In addition to being a great scientist, Andrew was a fine gentleman always ready to help others and easy to get along with. He was a workaholic. He was admired by his colleagues and friends from all over the world for his intellect, charm and eloquence and will be remembered with love and respect by all those who had the privilege of knowing him. He is survived by his wife, children and grandchildren.
Prof. Dr. Nándor Ács
2nd Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology
Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary
Prof. Dr. Ferenc Bánhidy
2nd Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology
Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary
Dr. K. Sankaranarayanan
Emeritus Professor of Radiation Genetics
Leiden University Medical Centre
Leiden, The Netherlands
Zoltan Merhala, (Dr. Czeizel’s former scientific secretary)
Fetal Diagnostic Centre, Budapest,
Hungary (Bérc utca 23., H-1016 Budapest, Hungary E-mail: [email protected])