WALKER, John

WALKER, JOHN (Walker, John), (p. 1941). Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1997 (with P. Bowyer and J. Skou).

John Walker was born in g. Halifax in Yorkshire (UK) January 7, 1941. My father was a bricklayer, played the piano and singing. The boy grew up with two younger sisters in a village near Elland. Later the family moved to r. Rastrik, where John studied at the local high school with in-depth study of physics and mathematics. The school took a great interest in sports.

In 1960, Walker enrolled at Oxford, the College Sts. Catherine, and in 1964 graduated from. In 1965 began studying peptide antibiotics with EP Abraham (EPAbraham) in the School of Pathology behalf of Sir Uilliama Dunn and in 1969 defended his thesis in this area.

Looking for a TV series of transfers, the Nobel laureate Dzh.Kendryu, Walker wanted to know more about the subject of these transfers. Book Molecular Biology of the gene of another Nobel Laureate, J. D. Watson (JDWatson) and the Genetics of Bacteria W. Hayes (William Hayes) and lectures for postgraduate, . have read at Oxford, David Phillips (David Phillips), . Professor of Molecular Biophysics, . and Henry Harris (Henry Harris), . Professor of Pathology, . strengthened his interest in molecular biology,
.

Over the next 5 years, from 1969 to 1971, he worked abroad, first in the School of Pharmacy at the University of Wisconsin USA, and from 1971 to 1974 - in France, thanks to scholarships provided to him. First practiced at the National Center for Scientific Research in Alive-sur-Yvette, and then at the Pasteur Institute.

In 1974 at a symposium in Cambridge, met twice Nobel laureate F. Sanger. And since then, Walker worked in the laboratory of Molecular Biology, Medical Research Council in Cambridge in a researcher

. Furnishing 1970 in the lab looked like this: passing along the corridor, . could detect F. Senger, . busy with problems of the nucleotide sequences of DNA, directly across the corridor another Nobel Laureate S. Milsteyn (C. Milstein) studied monoclonal antibodies, in the same building two more Nobel laureate Francis Crick and A. Klug and his colleagues have identified features of the structure of chromatin and RNA transport,
. And all this led by another Nobel laureate M. Perutz.

Walker led Senger studied peptide sequences of some proteins of mitochondrial. He then helped to clarify the details of the modified genetic code in mitochondria (cm. CELL).

In 1978, he turned to membrane proteins and began to study the structure of ATP synthase of bovine heart mitochondria and eubacteria. Ultimately, these studies resulted in a complete analysis of the structure of the catalytic site of the mitochondrial enzyme, making it possible to understand how arranged ATP synthase. This study was done to them, along with Michael Ransvikom (Michael Runswick).

Walker found that the presentation of P. Boyer on the functioning of 'molecular machines' in the process of ATP synthesis is correct. In 1964, Boyer hypothesized that the synthesis of ATP occurs as a result of structural changes in the molecule of ATP synthase. This controls the synthesis of the pH gradient across the membrane. Boyer revealed another pattern - the consistency and coherence of the three catalytic sites of the enzyme. It was called rotational catalysis. Been successfully investigated and other aspects of the mechanism of action of ATP synthase. In 1973, using chemical methods, he also suggested that the mechanism of these structural changes - the mechanism connecting the exchange.

First, in 1981, Walker determined the nucleotide sequence of genes that determine the amino acid sequence of ATP synthase. Then he was able to crystallize part of ATP synthase and in 1991 a detailed investigation of its structure. Thus, the structure of one part of the enzyme is known in detail, on the other side still little known

. In 1996-1997-X hypothesis about the mechanism of the functioning of ATP synthase in the synthesis and hydrolysis of ATP was confirmed by chemical (R. Cross (Richard Cross), . USA), . spectral (W. Junge (Wolfgang Junge), . FRG) and microscopic (Masasuke Yoshida (Masasuke Yoshida), . Japan) methods,
.

In 1997, Walker was awarded the Nobel Prize 'for the establishment of the enzymatic mechanism that controls the synthesis of adenosine triphosphate (ATP)'.

Walker loves walks, opera music and cricket.