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The successful marriage policy of margrave Leopold III increased the importance of the House of Babenberg in late medieval Austria (12th century). Historical documentation is inconclusive in providing evidence whether or not his eldest son Adalbert derived from an earlier relationship or from the marriage with King Henry IV's daughter Agnes of Waiblingen, with whom Leopold is considered to have had 17 children. As a matter of fact Adalbert was ignored in the line of succession in favor of a younger brother, Leopold IV, which has led to long term historical discussions. Human remains attributed to these individuals were subjected to DNA analysis. Autosomal, Y-chromosomal and mitochondrial DNA analyses brought successful results, which suggested that Leopold III, Agnes and Adalbert were related in parent-son constellation, in contrast to historical considerations. A possible mix-up of Adalbert's remains with those of his younger brother Ernst could not be confirmed by DNA analysis., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.)

David Gruby (1810-1898) was an early mycologist, the most prominent between Agostino Bassi (1773-1856) who discovered the fungus on silk worms and Raymond Sabouraud (1864-1938) who wrote the first textbook in the field.

Regular lectures in the history of medicine were held after 1833 by Romeo (Roman) Seligmann (1808 to 1892). Only after 15 years of uninterrupted activities in the field he was appointed professor, and after another 2 years he was granted a salary.

Pemphigus vulgaris in Israeli Ashkenazi and non-Ashkenazi Jews and in Austrian non-Jewish patients is strongly associated with the DR4 and DRw6 alleles of the HLA-D region class II genes. Restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis was undertaken with DQ beta, DQ alpha, and DR beta cDNA probes. Hybridization with the DQ beta probe identifies Pvu II, BamHI, and EcoRV fragments that absolutely discriminate pemphigus vulgaris patients from healthy DR-, DQ-, and ethnic-matched controls. In contrast the DQ alpha and DR beta probes failed to identify disease-specific restriction fragment length polymorphism fragments. These studies indicate that DQw1 and DQw3 polymorphisms carried by pemphigus vulgaris patients may be directly involved in predisposition to the disease or may be tightly linked to the susceptibility gene itself. To our knowledge, this is the first example of an HLA restriction fragment length polymorphism that is highly associated with susceptibility to autoimmune disease.

The present study elaborates on the person of Benjamin Lipschütz, the jewish-austrian dermatologist and microbiologist (virologist). His voluminous scientific oeuvre is appreciated, particularly with regard to his role as a pathfinder for the newly developing field of dermatovirology.