Johannes Fibiger

Johannes Andreas Grib Fibiger was a Danish physician and professor of anatomical pathology at the University of Copenhagen, who lived from 1867 to 1928. His doctoral research on diphtheria led to a serum trial in 1898 that is regarded by some as the first controlled clinical trial. He later reported that a roundworm he called Spiroptera carcinoma could cause stomach cancer in rats, and he received the 1926 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for it. That conclusion was disproved after his death, because the tumours were largely caused by vitamin A deficiency and had been mistaken for cancer, so the award is often cited as one of the Nobel committee mistakes. His clinical trial methods remain a lasting contribution.