Niels M.G. Harboe 1918–2006

Through his remarkable originality and leadership, Niels Harboe contributed significantly to the development of Danish medical science, Danish industry and the interaction between academia and industry. In his youth, Niels Harboe developed a strong and life-long interest for experimental work in chemistry, physics and biology. He graduated as MD in 1945, and after a year of clinical training he spent 1946–1949 in Uppsala with Kaj Ove Petersen, The Svedberg and Arne Tiselius, thereby obtaining the strongest possible training in the field of experimental physical chemistry of proteins. He was offered tenure in Uppsala but preferred to return to Denmark where he as research assistant founded The Protein Laboratory in a few small rooms in the basement of the Institute for General Pathology (now Medical Microbiology and Immunology) at the Medical Faculty, University of Copenhagen. Here he started work aiming at modifying and applying the new modern protein technologies for solving clinically relevant problems, today coined ‘translational research’. He was a master of solving practical laboratory problems and worked in the laboratory almost all his life, for long periods of time without assistance. He had a vivid fantasy, worked hard and after having found an idea sustainable he generously donated the project to a younger person, making it clear that he or she was free to develop and publish the work alone. In this way, the laboratory attracted a lot of young people who in the special and very friendly ‘Harboe-spirit’ learned to make their own way and were treated as equals by Niels Harboe. He escaped pregraduate teaching and evaluation of dissertations, and was not interested in writing papers, or being a coauthor. He thought that writing a doctoral dissertation was a waste of time, never did it, and was not the least interested in the academic life of the faculty. On the other hand, he was deeply interested in scientific problems of any kind and most pleased when the problems were solved and his coworkers had success. One year his university salary was not paid due to a mistake, but he continued as usual, and finally in 1961 he was promoted to a permanent position. Later on, he was offered a professorship but rejected the offer as he did not want to use time on pregraduate teaching. Needing the space for expanding teaching activities, in 1966 the faculty ordered that The Protein Laboratory should move, but no other space was made available. This was a severe blow, but then without permission, and out of his own pocket, he rented an abandoned bread factory close to Rigshospitalet and moved in with his staff and equipment. For this highly unusual act he was strongly reprimanded by the University, but after having visited the new surroundings rector Mogens Fog was fascinated and resolutely brought about that the laboratory became an independent institute, was given more resources, and in 1969 given more space in a new laboratory building. When Niels Harboe was 60 years old he retired from his university position. At that time 40–50 people worked in the laboratory in several independent groups. In 1965, Niels Harboe immediately realized the potential of Carl-Bertil Laurell's principle of analysing proteins by electrophoresis of proteins through antibody-containing agarose gel, electroimmunoprecipitation. A world of new possibilities was opened. For many years this immunochemical methodology, in particular crossed immunoelectrophoresis, was further developed at The Protein Laboratory and used for a multitude of research projects. Hundreds of scientists from all over the world have attended The Protein Laboratory's courses in this methodology, supported by Niels Harboe and Dako. Niels Harboe published only a few papers after 1964, but one these (1) became one of the then most-cited Danish biomedical papers. He was very surprised when he heard that, but satisfied that he had done something ‘useful’. Handbooks about the development of electroimmunoprecipitation were published and sold in more than 10,000 copies by Scandinavian Journal of Immunology as supplements no. 1 (1973), no. 2 (1975) and no. 10 (1983), and the income contributed significantly to the economy of the journal. Very unusual for a university scientist, and to the dismay of many inhabitants of the Danish university ivory towers, in 1966 Niels Harboe founded the family-owned private company Dakopatts Ltd based on the above-mentioned immunochemical techniques. The name of the company was coined from his teachers’ names: ‘kop’ (Kaj Ove Petersen), ‘at’ (Arne Tiselius), ‘ts’ (The Svedberg), but his wife demanded addition of the prefix ‘Da’. Since 2006 the name of the company is Dako, and immunologists, clinical chemists, pathologists and other scientists over the world have made use of the company's products. Some years later he also became the driving force behind the development of the company ALK-Abello Ltd, based on the same techniques. Alk-Abello is now the world leader in products for specific allergy treatment, allergy vaccination, the only way of obtaining long-lasting relief for allergic patients and reduction of symptomatic treatment. These two successful research-based Danish companies now together have about 2800 employees, and had hardly existed today without Niels Harboe's untiring efforts as chairman/member of the board of directors for the companies for up till three decades. For several years the two companies had employees working at The Protein Laboratory, which therefore was a ‘science park’ a long time before the advantages of such arrangements were appreciated by Danish universities. Niels Harboe was also chairman/member of the board of directors of Chr. Hansens Laboratorium Ltd (1958–1992), The Lundbeck Foundation (1978–1993) and H. Lundbeck Ltd (1985–1992). Taken together he therefore played a prominent role in the development of research-based Danish industry. During his chairmanship of the Lundbeck Foundation he increased the donations to Danish university research, which now amount to almost DKK 300 million per year, and in 1981 he founded the Harboe Foundation, which also supports scientific projects. Niels Harboe had a horizon that stretched far beyond his interests in science and industry. He was an avid angler of salmon in Namsen, his only luxury, and he was well versed in history and classical literature, having deep and original thoughts about life, including the ups and downs of his own and a lot of other people's lives. He was an exceptionally good listener and will be remembered by unusually many whom he inspired or helped in his kind and humorous way. Although he became very wealthy he lived on a modest scale. He was not the least interested in external signs of personal success, except for the honorary doctorate Copenhagen University conferred him in 1989 in appreciation of his foresighted contributions to the university.