Cornelia Catharina de Lange

Cornelia Catharina de Lange (24 June 1871 – 28 January 1950) was a Dutch pediatrician. Cornelia de Lange syndrome is named after her.

Life

Born in Alkmaar, De Lange graduated from the University of Amsterdam in 1897 and began her general practice.^[1] However, because pediatrics did not exist as a specialty in the Netherlands, De Lange moved to Switzerland, where she worked in the children's hospital in Zurich under Oskar Wyss.^[1] In the early 1900s De Lange became an acclaimed specialist and attained a position in Amsterdam’s Children’s Hospital.^[1] De Lange worked in all aspects of pediatrics. During her 50 years of practice she collected multiple observations of pediatric disorders.^[2] De Lange also became interested in congenital disorders and their pediatric relevance as theories on human genetics developed during the 1920s and 1930s.^[2] In 1933, De Lange described what she called "typus degenerativus Amstelodamensis" (Amsterdam degeneration type) in two children, which became known Cornelia de Lange syndrome.^[1]

References