Wayne State University School of Medicine - Yearbook (Detroit, MI)

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Charles E. Hikes Leon A. Hochman Mark D. Homer Michael Isenbcrg Ronald E. Isley VIZ H1 130

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I l JE , , it ff-r. ..- A. Nita-1 The Baumann Archive ulustus von Licbig's chemical laboratory in Giessen Cl845J provided students with facilities for experiment. Biochemistry seeks to explain the mediation and con- trol of life processes using the knowledge from simpler systems studied by chemists, physicists, and mathema- ticians. The concept of an essential fand inexplicablej vital force pervaded and narrowed biochemical thought until the early 20th Century. The synthesis of urea by Wohler in 1828 and the gradual realization that organic compounds could be synthesized outside of living systems gave an early reason for modifying vitalism. Experiments with enzymes gave another reason. Although extracellu- lar ferments had been described in the early 1800's, such complex reactions as the fermentation of sugar were considered inseparable from life until Buchner, in 1897, clearly showed that cell-free press -juice from yeast could cause fermentation. I-Ie concluded . . . fermentation is perhaps to be regarded as a physiological act only inso- far as it is living yeast cells that secrete the zymasef' Although the protein nature of enzymes was guessed for many years, it was not until 1926 that Sumner crystallized an enzyme and showed clearly it was a pro- tein. Even so, proteins could not clearly be separated from living processes for another two decades. They could be made only in living systems and some even seriously questioned whether they were random polymers rather than chemical entities. The elucidation of the amino acid sequence of insulin and its eventual synthesis in the laboratory and the development of cell-free systems which manufacture protein using cellular constituents have allowed molecular explanations to prevail. The success of chemical explanations for nucleic acid metab- olism and metabolic control suggest the value of these in embryology, immunology, and pathology. The fact that biochemical explanations rest clearly on molecular properties gives a clear indication that the chemical physicist with strong quantum mechanical background will be the biochemist of the future, able to explain in increasingly precise and conceptually straightforward terms, life, disease, and death. 129

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I X' ' -1 1 ., ,Q Martin L, jackicr Renee R. jenkins Dennis C. Jerome Douglas C. jones joyce D. Kirkland 131