Philip Handler

Philip Handler (born August 13, 1917 in New York City , † December 29, 1981 in Boston ) was an American biochemist .

Handler studied chemistry at City College of New York with a bachelor's degree in 1936, was a chemist at the US Regional Soybean Byproducts Laboratory from 1937 to 1939, and received his doctorate in 1939 from the University of Illinois under Herbert Edmund Carter . In addition, William C. Rose was one of his teachers there. After completing his doctorate, he was an instructor, from 1942 assistant professor, from 1945 associate professor and from 1950 professor of biochemistry at Duke University (Medical School). Originally he was drawn there by William J. Dann , who was doing research on Pellagra . Handler was head of the Biochemistry Department at Duke University from 1950 to 1969, became James B. Duke Professor in 1961 , and remained there until 1969 when he became President of the National Academy of Sciences . He stayed that way until 1981. On the side, he was Distinguished Professor of Medical Sciences at George Washington University from 1970 to 1981 . He originally intended to return to Duke University after his tenure ended in 1981, but fell ill with lymphoma and died soon after.

He initially dealt with nutrition (including deficiency symptoms) and metabolism and contributed significantly to the clarification of the mechanisms of pellagra as a nicotinic acid deficiency, which was particularly widespread in the southern states of the USA at the time. In the variant of the disease in dogs, he found that the actual cause was the predominant diet of corn. Others later found that corn was low in tryptophan , which can act as a metabolic precursor to nicotinic acid. He carried out the research in the early 1940s in part with William J. Dann and William A. Perlzweig.

He also discovered the production of a one-carbon molecule in the metabolism (when studying the breakdown of sarcosine to glycine with Mary LC Bernheim and J. Raymond Klein) and found that in mammals methionine is the only source of methyl groups in the metabolism and this cannot be saved. He also dealt with the metabolism of coenzymes, biological oxidations, mechanisms of enzyme and hormone effects, the metabolism of amino acids, the role of the kidney in high blood pressure and biochemical evolution. He is also known for an early biochemistry textbook.

As President of the National Academy of Sciences, he advocated space cooperation with the Soviet Union. He was also partly responsible for the expansion of the National Institute of Health and its institutes.

In 1971 he became a member of the Leopoldina . He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences (1964) and was its president from 1969 to 1981. In 1981 he received the National Medal of Science . From 1964 to 1974 he was on the scientific advisory committee of the US President. In 1975 he received the Copernicus Medal of the Polish Academy of Sciences . Handler was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1966) and the American Philosophical Society . He has received several honorary doctorates (including the Hebrew University of Jerusalem ). After Handler is the handler Ridge , a mountain ridge in the East Antarctic Victoria Land , named.

In 1939 he married his fellow student Lucille Marcus, with whom he had two sons.

Fonts

• with EL Smith, RL Hill, IR Lehman, RJ Lefkowitz, A. White: Principles of Biochemistry, 7th edition, McGraw Hill 1983 (first with Emil L. Smith, DeWitt Stetten, Abraham White 1954)
• Published in: Biology and the Future of Man, Oxford University Press 1970

literature

• Emil L. Smith, Robert L. Hill, Biographical Memoirs National Academy, 1985, pdf

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Member entry by Philip Handler at the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina , accessed on March 3, 2016.