Abstract
Dr. F. Dienas been elected to the Philip Hill chair ifcrimental biochemistry tenable in the Court institute, London. This chair is an inde-penderrb research post endowed by Mrs. Philip Hill in memory of her husband. Dr. Dickens took the Natural Sciences Tripos at Cambridge, and then spent two years in research work on pure organic chemistry under the late Sir Jocelyn Thorpe. 1923 he became an assistant in the Biochemical Department (later the Courtauld Institute) of the Middlesex Hospital, and collaborated in the important work done there on insulin and sex hormones under the direction of Prof. E. C. Dodds. In 1927 he began his interesting work on tissue metabolism,— In collaboration with the late Dr. Simer, he devised a method, which has been widely adopted, for the. measurement of the true respiratory quotient of isolated animal tissues. This method has the advantage of being applicable in the presence of bicarbonate and carbon dioxide mixtures. By the use of this method he was able to show that there is a distinct difference in the metabolism of cancerous and most normal tissues. Dr. Dickens has also conducted research on tissue enzymes and the inhibitory effect on them of such substances as fluoride and iodoacetic acid. He has also obtained a certain amount of evidence to show that different paths of fermentation and oxidation may be available in cells and cell extracts from that usually followed, and which is known as the Embden-Meyerhof cycle. Dr. Dickens has also shown that tumours and embryonic tissues have an unusually high content of citric acid. A study of the distribution of citric acid in the body showed that about 1 per cent is contained in the hard substance of bone, and that this is very easily influenced by dietary and hormonal conditions, and may play an important part in calcium metabolism and bone formation. During 1943–44, at the request of the Medical Research Council, Dr. Dickens undertook special research on the toxic effects of oxygen on brain metabolism. Dr. Dickens has recently published four papers on the factors which control the carcinogenic action of certain hydrocarbons.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Philip Hill Chair of Biochemistry: Dr. Frank Dickens, F.R.S. Nature 158, 577 (1946). https://doi.org/10.1038/158577b0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/158577b0