Karl Spiro

Karl Spiro (1867 to 1932) was a German biologist and physical chemist, born in Berlin. He received his PhD from the University of Würzburg in 1889 as a student of Emil Fischer and a medical doctorate from the University of Leipzig in 1893, then served as an assistant to Oswald Schmiedeberg and Franz Hofmeister at the University of Strasbourg, where in 1912 he became an honorary professor. From 1919 to 1921 he worked as a pharmacologist in the research laboratories of Sandoz in Basel, and in 1921 he succeeded Gustav von Bunge as professor of physical chemistry at the University of Basel, where he also directed the institute for physiological chemistry. In 1897 he invented Pyramidon, the trade name for aminopyrine, and with Arthur Stoll he is credited with the isolation of ergotamine. He died in Wimmenau aged 64.