William Howard Stein

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

William Howard Stein (born June 25, 1911 in New York City , † February 2, 1980 ibid) was an American biochemist . He received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1972 for his work on the chemical structure and catalytic effect of the active center of the ribonuclease molecule.

biography

William H. Stein studied from 1927 to 1929 at the Philips Exeter Academy and then went to Harvard University and Columbia University , where he received his doctorate in 1938. He then became first assistant and later professor at the Rockefeller Institute in New York. In 1960 he was elected to both the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences .

plant

With the ribonuclease, William H. Stein and Stanford Moore succeeded for the first time in fully elucidating the primary structure of an enzyme molecule , using an amino acid analyzer they had developed. This device made it possible to resolve proteins made up of a large number of individual amino acids . The clarification of the structure paved the way to an understanding of this enzyme and laid the basis for research into further enzymes.

literature

  • Bernhard Kupfer: Lexicon of Nobel Prize Winners , Patmos Verlag Düsseldorf 2001 ( ISBN 3-491-72451-1 )
  • Brockhaus Nobel Prizes - Chronicle of Outstanding Achievements , Brockhaus, Mannheim 2004 ( ISBN 3-7653-0492-1 )

Web links

Information from the Nobel Foundation on the 1972 award to William H. Stein