CARRERA Paul

Karrer, PAUL (Karrer, Paul) (1889-1971) (Switzerland). Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1937 (with William Haworth).

Born April 21, 1889 in Moscow, where his mother Julia Lerch and his father Paul Karrer, after whom it was named, temporarily lived, my father worked as a dentist. When Carrera was three years, . family returned to Switzerland and lived for some time in Zurich, . before settling in the district Vildegg Canton Aarau.On was in elementary school in nearby Morikene, . in high school - in Lenzburg, . in high school - in Aarau,
. Serious interest in science discovered when he was in high school.

Doing in 1908 in the University of Zurich, studied chemistry A. Werner (Nobel Laureate, 1913). In 1911 received his doctorate for a thesis on complex compounds of cobalt and became assistant to Werner Chemical Institute of the University

. His first scientific paper, . dedicated to organic arsenic, . made such an impression on Paul Ehrlich (Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, . 1908), . that he had in 1912 proposed Carrera become his assistant at the Research Institute of Chemical and therapeutic in Frankfurt (Germany), . where he began studying the causes of staining solutions salvarsan in addendum salts of silver and gold,
.

Since the beginning of World War I (1914) Karrer returned home and served in the army, but in 1915, after the death of Ehrlich, he returned to Frankfurt in order to continue research in the chemical-therapeutic institute. During the next three years he studied the chemistry of plant products, and then became an Associate Professor of Organic Chemistry, University of Zurich. In December, 1919 - Werner's successor in office of a chemistry professor and director of the Chemical Institute. Here he conducted research on sugars, amino acids and proteins. Especially interested in their stereochemistry of these and other organic substances.

Carrere began with a study of plant pigments. In 1911 he determined the structure of lycopene (S40N56) - the red pigment of tomatoes - and synthesize it. Problems in the Study carotene worked for 40 years. Willstatter already investigated anthocyanins - a group of pigments that cause red and blue coloration of flowers of plants, and Karrer began exploring the yellow pigment krotsina, which occurs in plants such as crocus and gardenia. In 1930, determined the structure of beta-carotene, a component of carrots, tomatoes and other plants that had recently been found R. Kuhn (Nobel Prize, 1938). Karrer discovered that a molecule of beta-carotene is a polyunsaturated hydrocarbon substituted with two loops at the ends of tsiklogeksenovymi polyene chain.

Seeing that carotene is converted in the body into vitamin A, he identified this vitamin from fish liver oil and by 1931 to determine not only its composition but also the structure. Discovered that vitamin A is composed of 20 carbon atoms, 30 hydrogen atoms and 1 oxygen atom; tsiklogeksenovoe together they form a ring with three methyl groups, to which is attached polyene chain. The molecule is a half molecule of beta-carotene with attached thereto a water molecule. In the early 1930 Karrer, relying on the knowledge of organic pigments, continued study of vitamins. He received a yellow water-soluble nitrogen-containing pigment called lactochrome, which later became known as riboflavin, or vitamin B2. Together with his disciple R. Kuhn, he established the formula and structure of the vitamin, but in 1935 they synthesized the substance.

In 1937 Carrera (with W. Haworth), was awarded the Nobel Prize 'for the study of carotenoids, flavins and vitamins A and B2'.

In his Nobel lecture Karrer said that only a few years with the help of new analytical techniques was the discovery of approximately 40 carotenoids. He recalled that 'passed almost 10 years from the time when many academic researchers doubted the material specificity of vitamins and were of the opinion that the cause of the observed features of the impact of vitamins ... serves as a special state of matter '.

About vitamins Karrer said: 'The chemical aspect of the problem of vitamin essentially solved. Problem physiology ... explain the interference of these agents in the processes of the cells'. This is one of the common tasks of the science of vitamins, and most vitamins, it has successfully solved.

The industrial synthesis of vitamin A is carried out in our time of beta-ionone and ether chloroacetic acid, and carotene is used as an additive in animal feed. Its production is carried out by microbiological.

The next important task - to define the structure and synthesis of all the known vitamins. This problem is successfully solved the efforts of many chemists decades to 20 in. The climax of the activities in this direction is the synthesis of vitamin B12, executed in 1971, R. Woodward (Nobel Laureate, 1965) in the U.S., together with a scientific team Eshenmozera A. (A. Eschenmoser) in Switzerland. Their work culminated in 25 years after this vitamin has been identified.

A year after receiving the Nobel Prize Karrer synthesized vitamin E, and for this success quickly followed by another - the selection in a pure form of vitamin K. Then he began studying nikotinamidadenindinukleotida (NAD) - a cofactor regulating the transfer of hydrogen atoms between molecules inside the cell. In 1942, determined the structure of the substance. Later, v1940-e, he returned to the study of carotenes and by 1950 completed the synthesis of all these compounds.

At the same time, he conducted research curare, a natural poison, which derivatives are used in surgery as a means to relax the muscles. Overall, Karrer opened 50 new alkaloids (including C-toksiferin, C-kolebassin, C-kurarin, etc.), some of which have found application in medicine.

In 1950-1953 - Rector of the University of Zurich. He continued to actively engage in scientific activities and, following the resignation in 1959. Under his leadership, written 282 theses, he published over a thousand articles, and he studied his textbook for several generations of students.

Died June 18, 1971 in Zurich after a long and serious illness.