Fibiger, Johannes Andreas Grib (1867–1928)

Danish cancer researcher who was awarded a Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1926 for his discovery of a parasite Spiroptera carcinoma that causes cancer. He demonstrated that healthy rats fed on larvae-infected cockroaches would develop cancerous growths, and that cancer could be produced artificially, thereby allowing studies to be carried out more readily.

Born in Silkeborg, he qualified in medicine in 1890, after which he held a number of academic appointments, including professor of pathological anatomy at Copenhagen University. When he first began his studies on cancer, there were many speculative theories about its cause.