70b
BIOCHEMISTRY
1833 French chemist Anselme Payen (1795–1871) discovers diastase (the first
enzyme to be discovered).
1836 Theodor Schwann discovers the digestive enzyme pepsin.
c.1860 Louis Pasteur demonstrates fermentation is caused by ‘ferments’ in yeasts
and bacteria.
1869 German biochemist Johann Friedrich Miescher (1844–95) discovers nucleic
acid.
1877 Pasteur’s ‘ferments’ are designated as enzymes.
1890 German chemist Emil Fischer (1852–1919) proposes the ‘lock-and-key’
mechanism to explain enzyme action.
1901 Japanese chemist Jokichi Takamine (1854–1922) isolates adrenaline (the first
hormone to be isolated).
1903 German biologist Eduard Buchner (1860–1917) discovers the enzyme
zymase (causing fermentation).
1904 British biologist Arthur Harden (1865–1940) discovers coenzymes.
1909 Russian-born US biochemist Phoebus Levene (1869–1940) identifies ribose in
RNA.
1921 Canadian physiologist Frederick Banting (1891–1941) and US physiologist
Charles Best (1899–1978) isolate insulin.
1922 Alexander Fleming discovers the enzyme lysozyme.
1925 Russian-born British biologist David Keilin (1887–1963) discovers
cytochrome.
1926 US biochemist James Sumner (1877–1955) crystallizes urease (the first
enzyme to be isolated).
1929 German chemist Hans Fischer (1881–1945) determines the structure of
haem (in haemoglobin).
K. Lohman isolates ATP from muscle.
1930 US biochemist John Northrop (1891–1987) isolates the stomach enzyme
pepsin.
1932 Swedish biochemist Hugo Theorell (1903–82) isolates the muscle protein
myoglobin.
1937 Hans Krebs discovers the Krebs cycle.
1940 German-born US biochemist Fritz Lipmann (1899–1986) proposes that ATP
is the carrier of chemical energy in many cells.
1943 US biochemist Britton Chance (1913– ) discovers how enzymes work (by
forming an enzyme–substrate complex).
1952 US biologist Alfred Hershey (1908–97) proves that DNA carries genetic
information.
1953 Francis Crick and James Watson discover the structure of DNA.
1955 Frederick Sanger discovers the amino acid sequence of insulin.