Sumner , James Batcheller

Sumner , James Batcheller
(1877–1955) American biochemist
Sumner, a wealthy cotton manufacturer's son from Canton, Massachusetts, was educated at Harvard, where he obtained his PhD in 1914. In the same year he took up an appointment at the Cornell Medical School where, in 1929, he became professor of biochemistry.
Despite having lost an arm in a shooting accident at 17, Sumner persisted in his desire to become an experimental chemist. In 1917 he began his attempt to isolate a pure enzyme. He chose for his attempt urease, which catalyzes the breakdown of urea into ammonia and carbon dioxide and is found in large quantities in the jack bean. After much effort he found, in 1926, that if he dissolved urease in 30% acetone and then chilled it, crystals formed. The crystal had high urease activity. Moreover Sumner's crystals were clearly protein and however hard he tried to separate the protein from them he always failed. He was therefore forced to conclude that urease, an enzyme, was a protein. However, this ran against the authority of Richard Willstätter who had earlier isolated enzymes in which no protein was detectable. In fact, protein was in Willstätter's samples, but in such small quantities as to be undetected by his techniques.
Consequently little attention was paid to Sumner's announcement and it was only when John Northrop succeeded in crystallizing further protein enzymes in the early 1930s that his work was properly acknowledged. In 1946 for “his discovery that enzymes can be crystallized” he was awarded the Nobel Prize for chemistry jointly with Northrop and Wendell Stanley.

Scientists. . 2011.

Игры ⚽ Поможем сделать НИР

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Sumner,James Batcheller — Sumner, James Batcheller. 1887 1955. American biochemist. He shared a 1946 Nobel Prize for his pioneering work on crystallizing enzymes. * * * …   Universalium

  • Sumner, James Batcheller — ▪ American biochemist born Nov. 19, 1887, Canton, Mass., U.S. died Aug. 12, 1955, Buffalo, N.Y.       American biochemist and corecipient, with John Howard Northrop (Northrop, John Howard) and Wendell Meredith Stanley (Stanley, Wendell Meredith) …   Universalium

  • Sumner, James (Batcheller) — born Nov. 19, 1887, Canton, Mass., U.S. died Aug. 12, 1955, Buffalo, N.Y. U.S. biochemist. He taught at Cornell University (1929–55). In 1926 he became the first researcher to crystallize an enzyme (urease); he later crystallized catalase and… …   Universalium

  • Sumner, James Batcheller — ► (1887 1955) Bioquímico estadounidense. Fue premio Nobel de Química en 1946, compartido con Northrop y Stanley, por sus investigaciones sobre las enzimas …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • Sumner, James (Batcheller) — (19 nov. 1887, Canton, Mass., EE.UU.–12 ago. 1955, Buffalo, N.Y.). Bioquímico estadounidense. Enseñó en la Universidad de Cornell (1929–55). En 1926 se convirtió en el primer investigador en cristalizar una enzima (ureasa); más tarde cristalizó… …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • James Batcheller Sumner — Pour les articles homonymes, voir Sumner. James Batcheller Sumner (19 novembre 1887 12 août 1955) est un chimiste américain, lauréat de la moitié du prix Nobel de chimie de 1946[1] …   Wikipédia en Français

  • James Batcheller Sumner — (* 19. November 1887 in Canton, Massachusetts, USA; † 12. August 1955 in Buffalo, New York) war ein amerikanischer Chemiker und Nobelpreisträger. Inhaltsverzeichnis 1 Leben 2 Wirken …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • James Batcheller Sumner — (Canton, EUA 1887 Buffalo 1955) fue un químico, bioquímico y profesor universitario estadounidense galardonado con el Premio Nobel de Química del año 1946. Biografía Estudió química en la Universidad de Harvard, donde se licenció en 1910. En 1912 …   Wikipedia Español

  • Sumner — James Batcheller …   Scientists

  • James B. Sumner — James Batcheller Sumner Pour les articles homonymes, voir Sumner. James Batcheller Sumner (19 novembre 1887 12 août 1955) est un chimiste américain, colauréat avec John Howard Northrop et Wendell Meredith Stanley du prix Nobel …   Wikipédia en Français

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”