Vincent du Vigneaud
Vincent du Vigneaud (born May 18, 1901 in Chicago , Illinois , † December 11, 1978 in White Plains , NY ) was an American biochemist.
He isolated, analyzed and synthesized the pituitary posterior lobe hormones oxytocin and vasopressin and received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1955 for his work on the biochemically important sulfur compounds, in particular for the first synthesis of a polypeptide hormone (oxytocin) .
Life
Vincent du Vigneaud was born in Chicago in 1901. He completed his studies from 1918 at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and from 1926 he went to the Johns Hopkins University in Rochester as a research assistant . There he received his doctorate in 1927. In 1932 he was appointed full professor of biochemistry at Washington University in St. Louis . Vigneaud was from 1938 head of the biochemical department of Cornell University at Medical College ( Ithaca , New York), where he retired in 1967. In 1978 he died in White Plains, New York State .
plant
At the beginning of his research, Vincent du Vigneaud dealt with the structure of insulin and especially with the sulfur it contains . In 1936 he recognized from the nature of the specific disulfide bridges that sulfur originated from the amino acid cystine . From 1937 he concentrated on biotin , which he identified as vitamin H and whose structure he was able to fully elucidate. He succeeded in synthesizing biotin for the first time in 1942. The sulfur-containing amino acids L- cysteine and L- methionine represented a further field of work, and he was able to explain their interchangeability in metabolism . L-methionine can be synthesized from L-cysteine and vice versa, L-cysteine can also be synthesized from L-methionine.
In 1946, a team he led took the final step in the synthesis of artificial penicillin (penicillin G), the culmination of an international research effort by many groups.
In the 1950s, Vincent du Vigneaud finally focused on the hormones of the posterior lobe of the pituitary gland. In 1953 he succeeded in isolating oxytocin. Oxytocin produced by action on the smooth muscle contractions of the uterus during childbirth and also stimulates the flow of milk from the mammary gland in the nipples on. He determined the amino acid sequence and was able to completely artificially synthesize the ring structure of the peptide molecule. He was also able to isolate a second hormone from the pituitary gland, vasopressin , and explain its structure.
Honors and memberships
- Member of the National Academy of Sciences (1944)
- Member of the American Philosophical Society (1944)
- Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1948)
- Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research (1948)
- Chandler Medal from Columbia University (1955)
- Willard Gibbs Medal from the American Chemical Society (1956).
- Honorary doctorates from the Universities of New York and Yale (1955) and the University of Illinois (1960)
- Honorary membership in the Royal Society of Edinburgh
- Honorary membership in the Chemical Society and the Royal Institute of Chemistry, London.
- Membership on the Board of Trustees at the Rockefeller Institute and the National Institute of Arthritis and Metabolic Diseases.
swell
- ↑ Information from the Nobel Foundation on the 1955 award ceremony for Vincent du Vigneaud (English)
- ↑ Time Magazine 1946
- ^ Member History: Vincent du Vigneaud. American Philosophical Society, accessed November 14, 2018 .
- ↑ Book of Members 1780 – present, Chapter D. (PDF; 575 kB) In: American Academy of Arts and Sciences (amacad.org). Retrieved February 6, 2018 .
Web links
- Literature by and about Vincent du Vigneaud in the catalog of the German National Library
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Vigneaud, Vincent you |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American biochemist, Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1955 |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 18, 1901 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Chicago , Illinois |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 11, 1978 |
| Place of death | White Plains (New York) |