Esmond E. Snell

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Signature of Esmond E. Snell

Esmond Emerson Snell (born September 22, 1914 in Salt Lake City , Utah , † December 9, 2003 in Boulder , Colorado ) was an American biochemist at the University of Texas at Austin , the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of California, Berkeley . He is best known for his work on the biochemistry of nutrition , in particular on substances of the vitamin B group and on enzymes .

Live and act

Snell comes from a Mormon family. He earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Brigham Young University in 1935 . He then studied at the University of Wisconsin – Madison , where he received a Master’s degree in 1936 and a Ph.D. in biochemistry . As a postdoctoral fellow , he worked with Roger John Williams at the University of Texas at Austin .

1941 Snell received a first professorship (assistant professor) at the University of Texas, in 1943 he became an associate professor . In 1945 he went back to the University of Wisconsin – Madison as an Associate Professor , where he received a full professorship in 1947. From 1951 he was again active as a professor of chemistry at the University of Texas, before moving to the University of California, Berkeley as professor of biochemistry in 1956 . Here he was head of the entire biochemistry from 1956 to 1962. He retired in Berkeley in 1976 and held another professorship in microbiology and chemistry at the University of Texas until 1980 . Even afterwards he remained scientifically active. In 1971, Snell was on a sabbatical at Osaka University . In 1990 he finally retired.

Snell's early work looked at the nutritional needs of bacteria. He succeeded in isolating avidin for the first time in 1940 , to which he also gave his name, a substance that inactivates biotin . Together with Paul Gyorgy , he was able to show that avidin causes signs of a biotin deficiency in rats.

In 1943, in experiments with cultures of Streptococcus faecalis and Lactobacillus casei , Snell noticed that the pyridoxine (vitamin B 6 ) required for the growth of these bacterial strains can be completely replaced by D -alanine as a nutrient. He also found that D -alanine was significantly more potent than L -alanine.

Snell also discovered lipoic acid and folic acid and developed microbiological tests for riboflavin and other vitamins and amino acids . He investigated the vitamin metabolism, discovered pyridoxal and pyridoxamine as active forms of vitamin B6 and clarified the mechanisms of transamination and other reactions that are catalyzed by the vitamin B6 enzymes. Later work dealt with the pyruvoyl -dependent histidine decarboxylase and was able to elucidate the mechanisms of the biosynthesis of this built-in cofactor .

Snell trained more than 30 doctoral students and more than 40 postdocs. He published more than 400 scientific publications . In 1945 he received the Eli Lilly and Company Award from the Society of American Bacteriologists (now the American Society for Microbiology ) and in 1985 the William C. Rose Award from the American Society of Biological Chemists (now the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology ). In 1955 he was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences , in 1962 a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . From 1968 to 1983 he was editor of the Annual Review of Biochemistry , from 1970 to 1985 of Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications .

Snell had been married to Mary Caroline Terrill since 1941 and the couple had four children. One of the sons died as a soldier in the Vietnam War . Esmond E. Snell died of prostate cancer and heart failure six days after his wife's death. Both are in El Cerrito ( California buried).

literature

  • Esther W. Miles, David E. Metzler: Esmond Emerson Snell (1914-2003). In: The Journal of Nutrition. Volume 134, Number 11, November 2004, pp. 2907-2910, PMID 15514250 .
  • Marvin L. Hackert, Edith W. Miles, Lester J. Reed: Esmond Emerson Snell, 1914-2003. In: Biographical Memoir. National Academy of Sciences , 2009 ( PDF, 148 kB ).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Robert Sanders: Noted vitamin researcher Esmond Snell, former biochemistry chair at UC Berkeley, has died at 89. In: berkeley.edu. December 22, 2003, accessed April 14, 2017 (eng).
  2. ^ Nicole Kresge, Robert D. Simoni, Robert L. Hill: The Discovery of Avidin by Esmond E. Snell. In: The Journal of Biological Chemistry , 2004, 279, p. E5 ( online ).
  3. ↑ EE Snell, BM Guirard: Some Interrelationships of Pyridoxine, Alanine and Glycine in Their Effect on Certain Lactic Acid Bacteria. In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . Volume 29, Number 2, February 1943, pp. 66-73, PMID 16588604 , PMC 1078561 (free full text).
  4. ↑ J. OLIVARD, EE SNELL: Growth and enzymatic activities of vitamin B6 analogues. I. D-Alanine synthesis. In: The Journal of biological chemistry. Volume 213, Number 1, March 1955, pp. 203-214, PMID 14353919 .
  5. ↑ JJ Corrigan: D-amino acids in animals. In: Science. Volume 164, Number 3876, April 1969, pp. 142-149, PMID 5774186 .
  6. ↑ EE Snell: The vitamin B6 group: VII. Replacement of vitamin B6 for some microorganisms by d (-) - alanine and an unidentified factor from casein. In: J Biol Chem. Volume 158, 1945, pp. 497-503.
  7. ↑ H. Hayashi, S. Tanase, T. Yagi: Esmond E. Snell - the pathfinder of B vitamins and cofactors. In: Journal of Biochemistry. 147, 2010, p. 451, doi: 10.1093 / jb / mvq016 .
  8. ^ Eli Lilly and Company-Elanco Research Award Past Laureates. (No longer available online.) In: asm.org. Archived from the original on November 13, 2012 ; accessed on April 13, 2017 (English).
  9. ^ William C. Rose Award. In: asbmb.org. Retrieved April 13, 2017 .
  10. ↑ Esmond Snell. In: nasonline.org. Retrieved April 13, 2017 .
  11. ↑ Book of Members 1780 – present, Chapter S. (PDF; 1.4 MB) In: American Academy of Arts and Sciences (amacad.org). Retrieved September 3, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Snell, Esmond E.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Snell, Esmond; Snell, Esmond Emerson
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American biochemist
DATE OF BIRTH September 22, 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH Salt Lake City , Utah
DATE OF DEATH December 9, 2003
Place of death Boulder (Colorado)