Klieneberger-Nobel was born on February 15, 1892, in Frankfurt, Germany, to Sophie née Hamburger, a homemaker, and Abraham Adolph Klieneberger, a successful wine merchant.
[2][1] Afterwards, she again studied mathematics in Göttingen for one semester, and after her return to Frankfurt in 1918 completed the state examination for teaching in the upper secondary school.
In September 1933, due to her Jewish descent, she was stripped of teaching authority on the basis of the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service.
[1][2] Klieneberger-Nobel received a fellowship from the American Association of University Women in 1934 after being dismissed from her position in Germany, and she used the funds to move to England.
Upon relocating to England, Klieneberger-Nobel received a position as a researcher at the Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine in London, where she would remain for the rest of her career.
[2] She then developed a special nutrient agar blend and culturing technique that allowed organisms causing bronchopneumonia in rats and mice to be grown in the laboratory for the first time.
[3] These special cell-wall-free forms of some bacterial species, which arise under certain culture conditions, have been implicated in antibiotic resistant infections.
[1] In 1962, shortly before she retired, Klieneberger-Nobel published the first book devoted to mycoplasmas, entitled "Pleuropneumonia-like organisms (PPLO) Mycoplasmataceae".
The increasing relevance of Klieneberg-Nobel's fundamental work on their morphology and growth cemented her role as one of the founders of mycoplasma microbiology.
[2] After retiring from the Lister Institute, Klieneberger-Nobel made several journeys abroad, including trips to Europe, the US, Australia, and to Colombia, where one of her nieces was living.
In 1980, the Robert Koch Medal was bestowed on her by the President of the then Federal Republic of Germany, Karl Carstens, in the city of Bonn[1]