Hermann Eggerer

Hermann Eggerer (born October 5, 1927 in Munich ; † March 25, 2006 ) was a German biochemist .

Eggerer attended the Ludwigs-Oberrealschule in Munich (Abitur 1947) and studied chemistry at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich with a diploma in 1954 and a doctorate under Feodor Lynen in 1957 ( on the biogenesis of polyisoprenoids ). As Lynen's assistant, he worked on Lynen's research on the biosynthesis of cholesterol. As a post-doctoral student , he worked with Earl R. Stadtman and Thressa Stadtman at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland , in 1961 , where he worked on the synthesis of citryl-CoA. After his return he was an academic advisor with his own working group at Feodor Lynen's institute and completed his habilitation in 1968. In 1969, he was appointed professor at the University of Regensburg . In 1977 he became a professor at the Technical University of Munich , where he stayed until his retirement in 1996.

He is known for his work on the stereochemistry of citrate synthase , a key enzyme in the citric acid cycle . He clarified the mechanism of action of citrate and malate synthase. Finally, he turned to the elucidation of the last remaining problem after the work of John W. Cornforth in the stereochemistry of the biosynthesis of cholesterol. He worked with the group of Cornforth (John W. Redmond) in tough competition with the group of Duilio Arigoni in Zurich. Eggerer submitted his results in 1968, but Cornforth waited for the Zurich group to publish the results side by side in Nature in 1969 . At Eggerer this led to a lasting upset. He turned back to research into the mechanisms of action of enzymes, such as the citrate lysis of Klebsiella pneumoniae .

In 1977 he received the Carus Prize of the Leopoldina and the Otto Wallach plaque .

He was an alpinist and skier.

Fonts

• H. Eggerer: On the mechanism of the biological conversion of citric acid, I. Synthesis of citric acid-α-monothioesters and of citryl-coenzyme A, Liebigs Annalen der Chemie, Volume 666, 1963, pp. 192-201
• H. Eggerer: On the mechanism of the biological conversion of citric acid. V. Citrate synthase, a hydrolase for malyl-coenzyme A, Biochem. Z., Volume 343, 1965, pp. 111-138
• H. Eggerer, A. Klette: About the catalytic principle of malate synthase, Eur. J. Biochem., Volume 1, 1967, pp. 447-475
• H. Eggerer, W. Buckel: Intramolecular Nucleophilic Catalysis on the Hydrolysis of Citryl-CoA, Hoppe Seyler's Z. Physiol. Chemie, Vol. 350, 1969, pp. 1367-1376
• JW Cornforth, JW Redmond, H. Eggerer, Wolfgang Buckel, Christine Gutschow: Asymmetric Methyl Groups: Asymmetric Methyl Groups, and the Mechanism of Malate Synthase, Nature, Volume 221, 1969, pp. 1212-1213

source

• Wolfgang Buckel, Lothar Jaenicke: souvenir picture: Hermann Eggerer (October 5, 1927 - March 25, 2006), BioSpektrum, 13th year, 2007, pdf