Tion Jens

Skou, Jens (Skou, Jens) (p. 1918). Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1997 (with P. Bowyer, and D. Walker).

Born October 8, 1918 in Lemvig, a town in western Denmark. His father Magnus Martinus Skou, sold coal and wood, and his mother take care of children (in the family had four children, Jens senior) and participated in public life of the city. When Jens was 12 years old, my father died.

At 15 he went to boarding school in Haslev, a small town on the island of Zealand. In 1937 graduated from high school. Then it was a medical department, University of Copenhagen, who Schouw graduated with a medical diploma in 1944. In recent years, training since April 1940, were overshadowed by the Nazi occupation of Denmark.

In 1944 received an internship at the hospital Herringa in northern Denmark, and 2 years probation, mainly on surgery. At the same time he worked in the orthopedic clinic in Aarhus.

In 1947 joined the Institute of Medical Physiology at the University of Aarhus, to write a thesis on the mechanism of analgesic and toxic effects of local anesthetics. Attention to this problem led him to the discovery of sodium-potassium pump, which he said in the article (1957). From that moment he began working on the problem of active transport of cations

. In 1950 British researchers R. Keynes (Richard Keynes) and Nobel laureate in physiology or medicine, Alan Hodgkin discovered, . that the sodium cation penetrates into the cell during excitation of the nerve and that the ATP consumed, . and, . that the transfer of sodium cations from the cell slows, . if inhibited the synthesis of ATP,
. Start to develop an idea of the enzyme ATP-asc, who was considered responsible for the biosynthesis of ATP. ATPase was detected in chloroplasts and membranes of mitochondria, as well as in the cytoplasmic membranes of bacteria.

In 1957, Skou found such a variety of ATPases, which is activated by cations of sodium and potassium. It was discovered by the first ion pump - an enzyme that creates a direct transport of ions through the cell membrane. Skou discovered Na +, K +-ATPase, which maintains the balance of sodium and potassium in the cell. In 1961, the opening of the pump followed by other.

The enzyme Na +, K +-ATPase is capable of opening into the extracellular space and then he can take 3 sodium ions. When he communicates with these ions, it joins a molecule of ATP. Then one of the phosphate ion is detached from the molecule ATP, and therefore the enzyme changes its shape, resulting in open entrance to the intracellular space, where and sodium ions are released. But now the enzyme is ready to take 2 of the potassium ion. When K + ions pumped into the cell, the enzyme returns to its original state and once again ready to take sodium cations. When bound ions K +, released separated from ATP phosphate ions. Such 'molecular machines' actions of this ATPase.

Na +, K +-ATPase and other ion pumps must always operate in our tissues. If they stop, our cells swell and eventually explode. On the maintenance of ion pumps require large amounts of energy - up to 1 / 3 of ATP produced in the tissues.

The action of ion pumps chemical exposures. For example, cardiac glycosides, digitalis inhibit the Na +, K +-ATPase, which causes the accumulation of sodium ions in cells. The use of such funds as a drug causes increased activity of cardiac muscle.

Over time, the group Schouw joined many young researchers, his lab to establish contacts with scientists around the world, and himself Schouw devoted much time lecturing abroad.

In 1977 he became head of the Department of Biophysics, Faculty of Medicine, and in 1988 he resigned, allowing him to appeal to the computerization of the kinetic model of the overall reaction occurring in the ion pump.

In 1997 Skou was awarded the Nobel Prize 'for pervootkrytie ion-transport enzyme, Na +, K +-ATF-azy'.

Over 50 years he lived a quiet and devoid of external life events in the same place and devoted himself to a scientific idea. His hobbies - sailing on a yacht and fishing in the fjords in the neighborhood of Aarhus, as well as classical music.