Dr. Gyula Takátsy (1914 – 1980)
Doctor, Clinician, Scientist, Inventor

Necessity Is the Mother of Invention:

Necessity in Hungary after WWII was a shortage of money for even basic laboratory supplies. This shortage and a severe Influenza outbreak in the early 1950’s resulted in the need for faster, cheaper and more accurate diagnostic testing of patients. The test tube and pipette for serial dilutions and testing for the Influenza virus were just too cumbersome, slow and used too much reagent. ln response, Dr.Takátsy developed several innovative laboratory supplies and techniques which he described as micromethods, a term still very applicable today. It was Dr. Takátsy who first came up with the idea of calibrated spiral wire loops for multiple simultaneous serial dilutions in plastic multiwell strips. By the time of his seminal publication in 1955 he had progressed to multiwell plates of 6X12 and 8X12 formats. He is not only widely credited with being the inventor of what we commonly call microplates; it can be argued he also developed the first techniques that led to the development of multi-channel pipettes.

The Growth of a Technology and an Industry:

The 8X12 (96 well microplate) format has not only become a standard, it has spawned a 400 million dollar industry with formats of up to 9600 wells. The 384 and 1536 well plate are now in common use in drug discovery. From Dr. Takátsy’s original idea for serial dilutions, microplates are now used for cell growth, microscopic analysis, filtration, low fluorescence, solvent resistance, heat resistance and a variety of specific biological binding properties.

Some of Dr. Takátsy’s observations in 1955 have also been a driving force in the field of high throughput screening for the identification of new drugs in the pharmaceutical industry. He is concerned with the speed of preparation (“..with little training one can use six loops simultaneously”), cost of supplies (“The technique has been found particularly useful in virus research, since it is not negligible how much has to (be) used from costly immune sera and antigens” and “The required volume of reagents is approximately one tenth the usual”), accuracy (“The volume of fluid measured varies within less wide limits of error than with measuring by pipettes”) and the conservation of expensive or hard to get biological materials (“..very small volumes of blood taken from the fingertip or from laboratory animals can be taken up and diluted for quantitative work”). Fifty years later, these statements can be heard in academic and industrial laboratories when justifying new methods and new technologies. The scale has changed from his 25 µl loops to today’s nanodispensing, but the need remains unchanged.

It is ironic that the main subject of the paper is the use of the spiral loops for serial dilutions and the testing methods for haemagglutination and complement fixation. There is little said of the plates except that they are “8X12 grooves” and “the grooves have a funnel shaped bottom and can take up to 0.15 ml fluid”. This could easily describe the modern microplate.

A Man Remembered and Honored by Many

The work of Dr. Takátsy will be remembered worldwide by people who have benefited from his dedication and innovation. The people of Hungary will always remember him for his life saving work on the diagnosis of the Influenza virus and the production of the first vaccine. The field of virology will remember him for his work on the purification and structural analysis of the virus and scientists in all areas of biology from genomics to drug discovery will remember him for his technical innovation in the development of the microplate. His invention has truly changed the diagnostic, research and therapeutic world.

2005 marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of Dr. Takátsy’s scientific publication on microplates in Acta Microbiologica et Immunologica Hungarica, the first such paper written. To commemorate the 50th anniversary of this journal and to honor the work of Dr. Takátsy, this paper has been reprinted by the journal and is available in English (see below). The PolyPops Development Foundation will be making his paper available on its website.

The Polypops Foundation Remembers Dr. Takátsy:

At the Society for Biomolecular Screening 10th Anniversary Conference and Exhibition held in Orlando, Florida from 11-15 September 2004, there was one person in the audience who can claim “I can remember the old days in Hungary when we worked with handmade microplates.” This person is Dr. Gyula Takátsy’s daughter Dr. Susan (Zsuzsanna) Takátsy. Susan is an MD and researcher who remembers her father every time she uses a microplate. Dr. Al Kolb had the privilege to represent the PolyPops Development Foundation and presented Susan with an award to honor her father. With a travel grant from The Foundation and the cooperation of SBS, Dr Susan Takátsy and Dr. Béla Dénes were able to attend the conference.

PolyPops is planning to introduce The Takátsy Award In perpetuity so breakthrough Innovators like Dr. Takátsy are identified at an early stage and recognized for their altruistic contribution to science, engineering and society.
PolyPops would welcome independent nominations for persons who would be considered for The Takátsy Award.

Reference Information:

Dr Takátsy was born in Hungary during the depression in 1914. He graduated in 1942 from the University of Medicine and worked at the State Institute of Public Health from 1946 until his untimely death in 1980.

Original Reference
Takátsy, Gy.: The Use of Spiral Loops in Serological and Virological Micro-Methods. Acta Microbiologica et Immunologica Hungarica, 3, pp 191-202 (1955).

Reprint
Takátsy, Gy.: The Use of Spiral Loops in Serological and Virological Micro-Methods. Acta Microbiologica et Immunologica Hungarica, 50 (4), pp 369-383 (2003).

The Polypops Development Foundation was founded and is maintained by Roy Manns, an engineer and innovator in the field of plastics, microplates and laboratory supplies. Among other activities, The Polypops Development Foundation supports grants for young investigators and the annual Polypops Award through SBS