Clodomiro Picado Twight, Costa Rican biologist (Dept. San Marcos de Jinotepe, Nicaragua 17 April 1887 – San Jose de Costa Rica 16 May 1944)

From Scottish descent

Authored over 115 scientific works

Developed various anti-venom sera

Authored Poisonous serpents of Costa Rica: their venoms, antiophidic therapy (1931) with international repercussion 

Demonstrated inhibitory action of fungi Penicillium sp. on bacterial growth before Fleming (1923) and isolated and described its products (1923-7)

Pioneer on theory of ageing immunology demonstrating the existence of autoantibodies as normal constituents of blood serum that play a role in a series of successive hormonal cycles that characterizes the human life (1937)

Demonstrated that plants could produce antibodies (1921)

Authored important studies on bacterial diseases affecting beans, those causing coffee fermentation and others demonstrating beneficial effects on iodine

Developed a new method for bacteria staining (1916), a new serological reaction for paludism (1929) and a new treatment of smallpox (1931)

With G. Naranjo enunciated a new biological principle applied to hypothyroidism (1941)

Used glycoside cedrin (from Simaba cedron) for fighting paludism (1930)

Patented a procedure for sanitary matters of residues and improvement of coffee quality

SOME BIBLIOGRAPHY

Biologica hematológica elemental comparada (1943)

Investigaciones sobre fisiopatologia tiroidea (1943)

Vacunación contra la senectud precoz (1937)

Vacuna curativa no especifica. Rev. Soc. Biol. Paris (1927)

Sobre la acción a distancia de los hongos fitopatógenos (1923)

Los micróbios del látex. Comp. Rend. Soc. Biol. (1921)

Les Bromeliacees Epiphytes consideres comme milieu biologique. Doctoral Thesis (1913)

DESCRIBED VALID TAXA 

Genus

Chirocladius 1913 (Diptera)

Species

Scirtes championi 1912 (Coleoptera)

Metriocnemus abdominoflavatus 1913 (Diptera)

Leptostyla gibbifera 1913 (Hemiptera)

Chirocladius pedipalpus 1913 (Diptera)

Ablabesmyia costarricensis 1913 (Diptera)

Fusarium anisophilum 1932 (Fungi)

HONOURS

Correspondant Member, Societé de Pathologie Exotique de Paris (1923) & Societé de Biologie de Paris (1933)   

World Intellectual Property Organization, Gold Medal (2000) posthumous 

BIBLIOGRAPHY  

Rev.Biol.Trop. 35(1):5-14,1987

Revista Medica de Costa Rica 121(6):130-42, 1944

LINKS

http://web.catie.ac.cr/informacion/RMIP/rev64/biografia.htm  

http://www.binasss.sa.cr/revistas/rmcc/rmedica/v6n121/art6.pdf  (bibliography)