Paul Delos Boyer

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Paul D. Boyer (2016)

Paul Delos Boyer (born July 31, 1918 in Provo , Utah , † June 2, 2018 in Los Angeles ) was an American biochemist who worked with John Ernest Walker and Jens Christian Skou in 1997 for his work on adenosine triphosphate (ATP) was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry .

biography

Paul Delos Boyer was born on July 31st, the son of osteopath Dell Delos Boyer (died 1982) and his wife Grace Guymon (died 1933) in Provo , Utah . The family also has 5 siblings. The death of his mother in 1933, who died of Addison's disease (a hormonal and metabolic disorder caused by underactive adrenal cortex), turned his professional interest into the field of biochemistry, and specifically to research into the causes of this disease. In 1934, he left Provo high school and began studying biochemistry at Brigham Young University (BYU) in Provo. He then moved to the University of Wisconsin – Madison , which was considered a leader in the field of biochemistry, and worked as a research assistant. Here he received his doctorate in 1943 under Paul H. Phillips on the subject of Studies on muscle phosphorylations and on vitamin A and carotene . After completing his doctorate, Boyer moved to Stanford University in California , where he worked on a government-funded project to stabilize and use the plasma protein albumin in blood transfusions from war casualties. This project was pushed out of military interest after the USA entered World War II. After successfully completing the research project, he was drafted into the US Navy shortly before the end of the war. He served at the Navy Medical Research Institute in Bethesda, Maryland. In 1946 he followed a call to the University of Minnesota at St. Paul - initially as an assistant professor. Here he was able to prove through intensive research that the synthesis of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) binds energy, especially during enzyme activity and the release of ATP. This was a crucial approach to further research into the actual processes involved in ATP synthesis.

Due to his scientific achievements, he was appointed full professor in 1953. During a subsequent research stay in Sweden in 1955 and the collaboration with the research team of Nobel Prize winner Hugo Theorell (1903–1982), he was able to deal even more intensively with the topics of enzymes and oxidoreductase . On his return, Boyer was Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Minnesota from 1956 to 1963 , after which he moved to the University of California, Los Angeles as Professor of Chemistry in 1963 . Here he was appointed director of the newly founded molecular biology institute in 1965. Here, too, he was able to continue researching adenosine triphosphate (ATP). On the basis of his scientific results, he was accepted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1968 , the National Academy of Sciences in 1970 and the American Philosophical Society in 1998. In the 1980s Boyer was able to present a model of how adenosine triphosphate (ATP) is formed via ATP synthesis. Biochemical analysis data that he had researched for many years served as the basis for this. The correctness of this model was confirmed by his research colleague John Ernest Walker . These findings served the biochemists as the basis for understanding the energy metabolism in living cells.

From 1985 to 1989 he was the head of a biochemical program that scientifically pursued the knowledge gained. Until his retirement in 1989 he worked at the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of California, Los Angeles . In October 1997, Paul Delos Boyer, along with the Danish physician and biophysicist Jens Christian Skou (1918-2018) and the British molecular biologist John Ernest Walker (born 1941), was one of the three scientists who were responsible for their fundamental scientific knowledge about the internal structure and the functioning of two central enzymes for supplying energy to cells were awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

In 1939 Paul Delos Boyer married Lydia Wicker. The marriage had three children.

Paul Delos Boyer passed away shortly before the age of 100 on June 2, 2018 in Los Angeles.

plant

Like his colleagues Skou and Walker, Paul Delos Boyer was primarily concerned with enzymes that catalyze the work of adenosine triphosphate, the main source of energy in the metabolism of organisms . He and Walker mainly concentrated on the synthesis of ATP by the enzyme ATP synthase . This produces ATP from adenosine diphosphate (ADP) and another phosphate molecule by binding these two to each other. Boyer was able to prove as early as the 1950s that this process primarily binds energy during enzyme activity and the release of ATP instead of, as previously assumed, by binding ADP to phosphate.

In the 1980s Boyer presented a model of how ATP could be formed via ATP synthase. Biochemical analysis data served as the basis. The correctness of the model was confirmed by Walker by structural analysis of the enzyme. Both provided essential basics for understanding the energy metabolism in living cells.

Three scientists were invited to the 1997 Nobel Prize for Chemistry, the Dane Jens Christian Skou , the Briton John Ernest Walker and Paul Delos Boyer. They were honored for their scientific achievements in the research of enzymes that catalyze the work of adenosine diphosphate (ADP) as the main energy supplier in the metabolism of organisms. While Boyer and Walker concentrated on the synthesis of adenosine diphosphate (ADP), Skou worked on the elucidation of the structure of the enzyme "sodium-potassium-ATPase" which he had discovered. The focus of all three scientists was on adenosine diphosphate (ADP) as the universal energy carrier of all living cells, from protozoa to human cells, which is therefore one of the most important molecules in biochemistry. Since this substance is constantly required in every cell, it also has to be constantly regenerated. This is primarily done by the enzyme ATP synthease. The degradation, on the other hand, takes place through the sodium-potassium-ATP phase, also an enzyme that is localized in the membrane of nerve cells. The molecular mechanism is driven by a kind of water wheel, a proton pump. This in turn draws its energy from the burning of nutrients. Without the ATP energy, humans lose consciousness and the cells die after just a few minutes. Death occurs.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Biographical data, publications and academic family tree of Paul D. Boyer from academictree.org, accessed on January 14, 2018.
  2. ↑ Entry "Boyer, Paul D." in the Munzinger archive in: http://www.munzinger.de/document/00000022373
  3. ^ Information from the Nobel Foundation on the 1997 award to Paul Delos Le Boyer
  4. ^ Brockhaus volume "Nobel Prizes", edition from 2001, pp. 980f. and DIE ZEIT of October 24, 1997
personal data
SURNAME Boyer, Paul Delos
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Boyer, Paul D.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American biochemist
DATE OF BIRTH July 31, 1918
PLACE OF BIRTH Provo , Utah
DATE OF DEATH 2nd June 2018
Place of death los Angeles