About the same time, UCLA mouse geneticist Margarete Mehrabian set out to identify a genetic explanation for heart disease.

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They moved through grade school together in Germany, to the economics department at Freiburg University and, later, to Margarete Steiff Co.

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Their names are Bronja Budreikaite, Natalija Fugaleviciute, Natalija Yegorova, Lyda Goluboviene, Vitautas Kaunietskas, Helene Holzman and her daughter Margarete Holzman who is still alive in Germany.

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At almost the same time, and apparently by entire coincidence, stuffed bears were also being introduced to Germany, where they were first manufactured by Margarete Steiff, who'd been making soft toys since the 1880s, and who'd recently been joined in the business by her nephew Richard.

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