Gustav Giemsa

Gustav Giemsa (1867-1948) was a German chemist known for creating a dye solution commonly known as "Giemsa stain". This dye is used for the histopathological diagnosis of malaria and parasites such as Plasmodium, Trypanosoma, and Chlamydia.

He was an early assistant to Bernhard Nocht at the famous Institut für Tropenmedizin in Hamburg, where he became the head of the Department of Chemistry in 1900. Giemsa spent a considerable portion of his early career working with tropical diseases in German East Africa (Tanzania).

In 1904 Giemsa published an essay on the staining procedure for flagellates, blood cells, and bacteria. Giemsa improved the Romanowsky stain (Eosin Y and Methylene Blue) by stabilizing this dye solution with glycerol. This allowed for reproducible staining of cells for microscopy purposes. This method is still used in laboratories today.