OCHOA (Ochoa), North

genus. September 24, 1905
Spanish-American biochemist Severo Ochoa was born in Luarca (Spain) and was the youngest son of a judge and businessman Carmen and Severo Ochoa (Albornoz) Ochoa. Primary boy was in Luarca and Malaga. In recent years, college Malaga great impression on About. made them read books Spanish neuroscientist Santiago Ramon y Cajal, and after receiving a 1921. Bachelor of Arts degree, he entered medical school at the University of Madrid, which he graduated with honors in 1929. In the next two years with support from the Spanish Council for Scientific Research, he studied biochemistry and physiology of muscle tissue, researchers working as an assistant to Otto Meyerhof in the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Heidelberg and Berlin. In 1931, Mr.. He returned to Madrid university professor of physiology and biochemistry, and the next year held at the National Institute for Medical Research in London, where he studied enzymology (the study of enzymes and their functions).
Upon his return in 1935. medical school at the University of Madrid About. was appointed head of the department of Physiology, Institute of Medical Research. When in 1936. the Spanish civil war began on. and his wife left the country. Over the next five years on. worked in laboratories in Germany and Britain: the Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg, Kaiser Wilhelm, in the laboratory of Marine Biology at Plymouth and in medical school at Oxford University. During that period, O. studied the function of thiamin (vitamin B1) and intermediate metabolism - biochemical reactions in which carbohydrates and fatty acids form the energy for cellular processes.
After the Second World War, in 1941, O. emigrated to the United States and in 1956. receives U.S. citizenship. Becoming a teacher and researcher in the department of pharmacology at Washington University in St. Louis, he worked with Charles F. and Gerty T. Corey, well-known scientists in the field of intermediate metabolism of carbohydrates. Since 1942, after receiving a researcher, O. linked his creative life to the medical school at New York University, first as an assistant professor of Biochemistry (1945), then as Professor and Head of Department of Pharmacology (1946), and finally as Professor of Biochemistry (1954). In 1949, Mr.. He was a visiting professor of biochemistry at the University of California at Berkeley.
The main sources of cellular energy is saturated with its substance containing phosphate in the form of adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Amino acids, fats and carbohydrates are metabolized in the citric acid cycle, Krebs, the chain reactions leading to the formation of ATP. Citric acid cycle - a chain of finite chemical reactions in mammalian cells that result in oxidation of proteins, fats and carbohydrates in the body and the formation of energy - was discovered by Hans Krebs. O. found that complete oxidation of one glucose molecule to carbon dioxide yields 36 ATP molecules, energy-rich. He also discovered the mechanism of citric acid cycle by providing the enzymes, known as tsitratsintetaza (initially called the condensing enzyme), isocitrate dehydrogenase and malic enzyme acid. Exploring photosynthesis - biochemical process by which green, contain chlorophyll, plants convert light under the influence of carbon dioxide and water into carbohydrates - About. found an additional role of the enzyme malic acid.
Genes located in the chromosomes of the nucleus of each cell, determine the inheritance of physical characteristics, controlling the synthesis of proteins (enzymes). They consist of sections of the molecule of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), containing nitrogenous base (purine or pyrimidine), located together with the monosaccharide and the phosphate groups in the form of the double helix. In DNA replication the two halves of the double helix are separated from one another, and then on each of them is the synthesis of new DNA molecule. The sequence of nitrogenous bases acts as a matrix for the formation of new molecules. Synthesis of proteins occurs in the transmission of genetic information of ribonucleic acid (RNA), similar in structure to DNA but containing ribose rather than monosaccharide deoxyribose and uracil - instead of thymine.
. Three types of RNA are involved in the sequential incorporation of amino acids in the protein molecule: Information, ribosomal and transport
. The genetic instructions for the synthesis of the protein encoded in the sequence of nitrogenous bases of DNA and RNA. Groups of three nitrogen bases, or triplets, coding for the inclusion of each amino acid in the protein molecule.
In 1955, Mr.. O. identified a bacterial enzyme polynucleotide, which catalyzes a reversible reaction in the synthesis of polyribonucleotides of ribonukleoziddifosfatov. shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1959. Merit About. Hugo Theorell called his studies which led to discovery 'systems forming ribonucleic acids'. 'We distant future will observe several important discoveries in human biochemistry, studying viruses, Genetics and cancerous research as consequence artworks About. and Kornberg ', - concluded Hugo Theorell. In Nobel lectures 'Enzymatic sintez ribonucleic acid' ( 'Enzymatic Synthesis of Ribonucleic Acid') About. summarized the work that led him to discoveries.
In honor of the 70 th anniversary on. in 1975. scientific symposia were held in Barcelona and Madrid. Kornberg and colleagues published 'Reflections on Biochemistry' ( 'Reflections on Biochemistry'), three-volume book, containing all written about. and his colleagues in the scientific work. After his retirement in 1975. from the University Medical School in New York on. become a member of the Institute of Medical Research in New Jersey.
In 1931, Mr.. O. married Carmen Garcia Kobia, the daughter of a Spanish judge and businessman, children they had not.
. Among the awards and prizes, . awarded O., . - Carl Neuberg Medal of the American Society of European Chemists (1951), . Charles Leopold Mayer Prize of the French Society of Biochemistry (1955), . Borden Award for Medical Research Association of American Medical Colleges (1958), . University Medal at New York University (1959) and the Order of the Rising Sun Japanese Government (1967),
. He was awarded honorary degrees from universities in Washington, Veslyany, Oxford, Pennsylvania, Brendisa, Michigan, Glasgow and Yeshiva.
About. - Member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, . American Academy of Arts and Sciences, . New York Academy of Sciences, . New York Academy of Medicine, . American Society for Biochemistry, . American Chemical Society, . National Academy of Sciences, . Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine, . American Philosophical Society, . Biochemical Society of Great Britain, . Royal Academy of Sciences in Madrid and Barcelona and the Helgoland Academy of Natural Scientists 'Leopoldina',
. He also - foreign member of the Royal Society of London, the Academy of Sciences of the USSR and the Polish Academy of Sciences.