Karl Meyer (biochemist)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Karl Meyer (born September 4, 1899 in Kerpen ; † May 18, 1990 ) was a German physician and biochemist .

Mayer has characterized connective tissue substances , including various components of collagen and the basic substance of the extracellular matrix , in particular glycosaminoglycans (mucopolysaccharides), and coined the term " hyaluronic acid ".

Life

Meyer grew up in Kerpen and attended the Jewish school there and then the Catholic, humanistic grammar school . 1917 Meyer was drafted as a 17-year-old and served in World War I on the Western Front in France and Flanders .

After the war Meyer studied medicine and received his doctorate in 1924 at the University of Cologne . After brief clinical work on a tuberculosis ward, Meyer went to Berlin to study chemistry , most recently with Nobel Prize winner Otto Fritz Meyerhof at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute there . 1927 Meyer holds a PhD in chemistry with a thesis on the lactic acid -Metabolism of muscle . With a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation , Meyer went to the later Nobel Prize winner Richard Kuhn at the ETH Zurich , where he worked on the oxidative abilities of Häme .

In 1930 Herbert Evans brought Meyer as an assistant professor at the University of California, Berkeley . In 1932 Meyer decided not to return to Germany, but to take a position as a research assistant at Columbia University in New York City , before he got a position as an assistant professor in ophthalmology there in 1933 . Here he dealt with the lysozyme in the tear fluid and later with the composition of the fluid in the vitreous humor of the eye, where he identified and named hyaluronic acid and researched its metabolism - including hyaluronidases . He also dealt with other glycosaminoglycans and proteoglycans . From 1967 to 1976 Meyer was Professor of Biochemistry at Yeshiva University in New York City, before he was again active as a (emeritus) professor at Columbia University.

Awards (selection)

The Society for Complex Carbohydrates (today Society for Glycobiology ) has been presenting the Karl Meyer Award for Glycoconjugate Research since 1991 .

literature

  • Vincent C. Hascall, Endre A. Balazs: Karl Meyer. In: Biographical Memoir. National Academies Press 2009 (PDF, 638 kB)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award 1956 Winner at the Lasker Foundation (laskerfoundation.org); Retrieved June 16, 2012
  2. ↑ Book of Members 1780 – present (PDF, 323 kB) at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (amacad.org); Retrieved June 16, 2012
personal data
SURNAME Meyer, Karl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German biochemist
DATE OF BIRTH September 4, 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH Kerpen
DATE OF DEATH May 18, 1990