100 YEARS AGO

It is announced by the Electrician that this year it is proposed to award the Nobel physics prize to Signor Marconi, the chemistry prize to Prof. Arrhenius, and the medicine prize to Prof. Finsen. Each prize is worth about 8000l.

From Nature 5 November 1903.

50 YEARS AGO

The Nobel Prize for Medicine and Physiology for 1953 has been awarded jointly to Prof. H. A. Krebs, professor of physiology in the University of Sheffield and director of the Medical Research Council Unit for Research in Cell Metabolism, and Dr. F. Lipmann, head of the Biochemical Research Laboratories, Massachusetts General Hospital.

Prof. H. A. Krebs, F.R.S.: Prof. Krebs has mostly been concerned with the study of metabolic processes by experiments in vitro. The first of his two greatest contributions to biochemistry was from Freiburg in 1932, when he elucidated the mechanism of urea synthesis in the liver, by discovering the participation of ornithine, citrulline and arginine through a cyclical process — a concept of unprecedented nature. His subsequent observations on the deamination of amino-acids demonstrated d-amino-acid oxidase, and laid foundations for future studies of the l-acids. In Cambridge in 1935 he proved the synthesis of glutamine from glutamic acid and ammonia in tissue slices. After moving to Sheffield, he announced in 1937 his second major contribution, the citric-acid cycle.

Dr. Fritz Lipmann: After studying problems of muscle metabolism in Meyerhof's laboratory and of fermentation in the Carlsberg laboratory, Lipmann set the pattern for his future work when in 1937 he began to analyse the oxidation of pyruvate to acetate by bacteria. He found that the oxidation is accompanied by phosphorylation, and announced from Cornell University in 1939 that the 'energy-rich' ester acetyl phosphate is an intermediate... Moving to Boston, Lipmann realized that acetyl phosphate is not formed in pyruvate oxidation in animal tissues; some other substance had to be sought... Studying the biological acetylation of sulphanilamide, he discovered a new coenzyme, coenzyme A... Finding that it is a derivative of the vitamin pantothenic acid and a general constituent of living organisms, he quickly realized that it is of fundamental importance in carbohydrate and fat metabolism.

From Nature 7 November 1953.