Karl Decker (biochemist)

Karl Franz Alfred Decker (born February 14, 1925 in Munich ) is a German biochemist and is considered a pioneer of biochemical research.

Life

Decker made 1943 Abitur at the Wilhelm Gymnasium München and graduated in 1950 with a degree in chemistry at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich from 1955 doctorate he and 1961. habilitated he just there. From 1960 he was a lecturer at the Biochemical Institute of the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg , where he received his first professorship in 1963. In 1967 he was a visiting professor at Michigan State University in East Lansing , Michigan . In 1968 Decker became director of the Biochemical Institute at the University of Freiburg and a full professor at the medical faculty there. In 1993 he retired .

Decker is married with three children. Since 1947 he has been a member of the Catholic student association KDSt.V. Rheno-Franconia Munich.

Act

Decker was part of Feodor Lynen's group , where he studied the role of coenzyme A in the β-oxidation of fatty acids . Decker's monograph The activated acetic acid: The coenzyme A and its acyl derivatives in the metabolism of the cell (1959) is considered a standard work. Decker's work on the evolution of enantiozyme (pairs of enzymes that form the same product from the ( R ) - and ( S ) - enantiomer of a substrate ) was fundamental to understanding convergent evolution . Further groundbreaking work by Decker dealt with the energy and building metabolism of strictly anaerobic bacteria. Basic medical work Deckers dealt with the cholesterol - homeostasis in humans and animals, and with the hepatitis for which he the animal model of galactosamine developed -Hepatitits. He investigated the role of non- parenchymal cells in the liver and the signal substances produced by these cells in the inflammatory process.

Decker held leading positions in the following institutions: Member of the Senate of the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg (1969–1977), Dean of the Medical Faculty of the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg (1970/1971); Member of the Senate and the Main Committee of the German Research Foundation (DFG, 1976–1982), President of the Society for Biological Chemistry (1977–1979), Member of the Board of Directors of the Mildred Scheel Foundation for Cancer Research (1982–1995), Scientific Advisory Board of Max Planck -Institute for Biochemistry (1986–1994), Chairman of the Federation of European Biochemical Societies (FEBS, 1986), member of the Executive Committee of FEBS (1986–1996), Senator of the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina (1990–1996), director of the institute for interdisciplinary research of the Görres Society (1994–1998).

Awards (selection)

• 1976 membership in the Leopoldina
• 1987 Full member of the GDR Academy of Sciences
• 1995 Lucie Bolte Prize
• 2005 Heinrich Wieland Gold Medal for life's work
• 2009 Cothenius Medal of the Leopoldina

Web links

• CV at the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Annual report of the Wilhelms-Gymnasium Munich 1942/43.
2. ^ Member entry by Karl Decker at the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina , accessed on October 12, 2012.
3. ^ Members of the previous academies. Karl Decker. Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences , accessed on March 12, 2015 . 
4. ^ The winners of the Lucie Bolte Prize since 1982 ( memento from February 19, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) at the Lucie Bolte Foundation (lucie-bolte-stiftung.de); Retrieved September 16, 2012.
5. ^ Heinrich Wieland Prize 2005 and Gold Medal for lifetime achievements awarded. In: heinrich-wieland-prize.de. November 4, 2005, accessed February 19, 2016 . 
6. ↑ Leopoldina honors the life's work of two members with the Cothenius Medal at the Leopoldina (leopoldina.org); Retrieved September 16, 2012.