Masyaalloh, koq masih pakai nama Eijkman? Bukankah Eijkman ini Belanda? hehehe
http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/myjakarta/my-jakarta-the-eijkman-institute/541537 My Jakarta: The Eijkman Institute Antonny Saputra | September 04, 2012 ‘We even put in the effort to keep the sepia lighting.’ (JG Photo)In the late 1880s, a global-scale medical discovery was made that would change the way people understood and treated diseases — and it happened right here in Jakarta. In 1888, Dutch physiology professor Christiaan Eijkman was stationed as a medical officer in Jakarta, then known as Batavia, when he was assigned to study a peculiar epidemic called beriberi. At that time, it was widely thought that diseases were always caused by external factors, such as germs. But in his study, Eijkman discovered that beriberi was not caused by an invasion of germs, but instead by the lack of thiamine, or vitamin B1. Eijkman’s discovery marked the beginning of the scientific understanding of vitamins, and won him the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine decades later, in 1929. The discovery was made in the Geneeskundig Laboratorium, or Medical Laboratory, at Jalan Diponegoro No. 69 in Central Jakarta. The lab was established in 1888, and Eijkman was its first director. On its 50th anniversary, the lab was renamed the Eijkman Institute in his honor. For decades after, the laboratory served as a world-renowned research center for tropical diseases. Today the Eijkman Institute houses a unique combination of advanced technology and history. >From the outside, the institute almost looks like a museum. But the equipment >inside is anything but old, including high-tech machines like DNA sequencers, >PCR machines and other gadgets that can cost up to Rp 2.5 billion ($260,000) a >piece. It also houses one of the few Biosafety Level 3 laboratories in Indonesia, equipped with a gas decontamination chamber where research involving potentially deadly microorganisms takes place. Feza “Feta” Erlita, the institute’s head of public relations, who used to be a researcher there, explained that the building is considered part of the country’s cultural heritage, so permanent changes in its structure are not allowed. Instead, the occupants try to keep the entire atmosphere there the same as in the old days, when Eijkman himself walked the halls. The visitor’s lounge is still furnished with old-fashioned wood and rattan chairs, while the tiles, doors, windows and railings are stylized like the ones seen in black-and-white photographs of Dutch colonial houses. “We even put in the effort to keep the old-fashioned sepia lighting,” Feta said. Eijkman’s is not the only story lurking within these walls. Another belongs to the center’s first Indonesian director, Achmad Mochtar, who was in charge in 1944 during the Japanese occupation prior to the end of World War II. At that time, the Japanese accused Mochtar and his team of poisoning a batch of vaccine that was to be administered to local slave workers. Mochtar and his researchers were tortured and interrogated over the incident. To protect his colleagues, Mochtar made a deal with the Japanese that he would plead guilty only if they would release his men. He was beheaded and buried in an unmarked grave. The Eijkman Institute building looks untouched since days of old, but actually it has undergone several changes throughout the decades. In the 1960s it was forced to close due to the country’s political and economic upheaval, and was absorbed into the Cipto Mangunkusomo Hospital. It remained that way for almost 30 years until B.J. Habibie, then the minister of research and technology and later the president of Indonesia, decided to reopen the institute in 1992. The center was fully operational a year later, but in 1998 ran into further troubles during the Asian financial crisis. In 2004, the institute finally reclaimed its former glory by using DNA technology to identify the suicide bomber responsible for attacking the front of the Australian Embassy in Kuningan, South Jakarta. This was a feat that finally drew recognition for the practical benefits of molecular biology. Today the center continues its work into groundbreaking science, while always retaining a sense of its past. And who knows? Perhaps there is another Nobel prize for Indonesia within its wall [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
