Hopkins, Frederick Gowland (1861–1947) English
Biochemist Frederick Gowland Hopkins was born on
June 20, 1861, in Eastbourne, England, to a bookseller
in Bishopsgate Street, London, who died when Freder-
ickwas an infant.
In 1871 he attended the City of London School,
and at the early age of 17, he published a paper in The
Entomologist on the bombardier beetle. He went to
University College, London, where he became the assis-
tant to Sir Thomas Stevenson, an expert on poisoning.
In 1888 he became a medical student at Guy’s Hospi-
tal, London.
In 1894 he graduated in medicine and taught phys-
iology and toxicology at Guy’s Hospital for four years,
and in 1898 he moved to Cambridge. He was appoint-
ed fellow and tutor at Emmanuel College, Cambridge.
Hopkins established biochemistry as a field in
Great Britain. He discovered how to isolate the amino
acid tryptophan and identified its structure, discovered
enzymes, and isolated glutathione. For his research on
discovering growth-stimulating vitamin, which he
called “accessory substances,” he was awarded the
Nobel Prize in 1929 in medicine or physiology. He
actually isolated vitamins C, A, and D.
Hopkins was knighted in 1925 and received the
Order of Merit in 1935. Hopkins died in 1947 at the
age of 86. The Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins Memo-
rial Lecture of the Biochemical Society, named in his
honor, is presented by a lecturer to assess the impact of
recent advances in his or her particular field on devel-
opments in biochemistry. The award is made every two
to three years and the lecturer is presented with a
medal and £1,000.
hormone A substance produced by endocrine glands,
released in very low concentration into the blood-
stream, and which exerts regulatory effects on specific
organs or tissues distant from the site of secretion.
See alsoGLANDs.
Houssay, Bernardo Alberto(1887–1971) Argentine
Physiologist Bernardo Alberto Houssay was born in
Buenos Aires, Argentina, on April 10, 1887, to Dr.
Albert and Clara Houssay (née Laffont), who had
come to Argentina from France. His father was a bar-
rister. Houssay’s early education was at a private
school, the Colegio Británico. He then entered the
School of Pharmacy of the University of Buenos Aires
atthe age of 14, graduating in 1904. He had already
begun studying medicine and, in 1907, before complet-
ing his studies, took up a post in the department of
physiology and began research that resulted in his
receiving an M.D. in 1911.
In 1910 he was appointed professor of physiology
in the university’s school of veterinary medicine. In
1919 he became professor of physiology in the medical
school at Buenos Aires University and also organized
the Institute of Physiology at the medical school, mak-
ing it a center with an international reputation. He
remained professor and director of the institute until
1943, when the government then in power deprived
him of his post, the result of his voicing the opinion
that there should be effective democracy in the coun-
try. In 1955 a new government reinstated him in the
university.
He demonstrated that a hormone secreted by the
pituitary prevented metabolism of sugar and that injec-
tions of pituitary extract induced symptoms of dia-
betes. He was awarded the 1947 Nobel Prize in
physiology or medicine for this work on the functions
of the pituitary gland.
In 1949 he came to the United States as a special
research fellow at the National Institutes of Health.
During his lifetime, Houssay authored more than 500
papers and several books and won many scientific
prizes and awards. He died on September 21, 1971.Human Genome Project The Human Genome Pro-
ject (HGP) is an international research effort to deter-
mine the DNA sequence of the entire human genome.
Contributors to the HGP include the National Insti-
tutes of Health (NIH); the U.S. Department of Energy
(DOE); numerous universities throughout the United
States; and international partners in the United King-
dom, France, Germany, Japan, and China.
Begun in 1990, the U.S. Human Genome Project is
a long-term effort coordinated by the Department of
Energy and the National Institutes of Health. The goals
of the project are to identify all of the approximately
30,000 genes in human DNA; determine the sequences
of the 3 billion chemical base pairs that make up human
DNA; store this information in databases; improve
tools for data analysis; transfer related technologies toHuman Genome Project 167