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Introductory Remarks
Introductory Remarks ROBERT S. HARRIS Massachuaetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts
It is a privilege and an honor for me to open this the Sixth Roche Symposium.* On alternate years beginning in 1960, the Editors of Vitamins and Hormones have collaborated with a series of ad hoc committees in planning, producing, and publishing symposia that are critical evaluations of current knowledge concerning individual vitamins, vitamins in relation to anemias and to enzymes. The present symposium is concerned with enzymes that contain vitamins. We take this occasion to thank F. Hoffmann-Le Roche and Co., Basel, Switzerland and Hoffmann-La Roche Co., Nutley, New Jersey for generously underwriting the costs of these symposia and contributing to the costs of publication of the proceedings in Vitamins and Hormones. In the past, each symposium has been dedicated to a scientist who played ,a major role in the discovery of a selected vitamin and the elucidation of its metabolic functions. The honored scientist has been able to attend each symposium, to participate in the proceedings, and to recall the events that surrounded his discovery. At this symposium we meet to honor Professor Axel Hugo Theodor Theorell. Dr. Theorell was born on July 6, 1903 in LinkSping, Sweden. H e is a son of Armida Bill and of Thure Theorell, who served as surgeon-major to the First Life Grenadiers, and practiced medicine in Linkoping. He attended a State Secondary School in LinkSping for nine years and passed his student exam there on May 21, 1921. He received the Bachelor of Medicine degree in 1924 after three years a t the Karolinska Institute, then studied bacteriology during three months at the Pasteur Institute in Paris under Professor C,almette. I n 1930 he presented a thesis on the lipids of plasma and was awarded the M.D. degree. Dr. Theorell served on the staff of the Medico-Chemical Institution *The five previous symposia were: Vitamins A and Carotene, in honor of Professor Paul Karrer and published in Volume 18; Vitamins E, in honor of Professor Herbert E. Evans and published in Volume 20; Vitamin a,in honor of Professor Paul Gyorgy and published in Volume 22; Vitamins K and Related Quinones, in honor of Professor Henrik Dam and published in Volume 24; and Vitamin-Related Anemias, in honor of Professor William B. Castle and published in Volume 26 of Vitaniins and Hormones. 143
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between 1924-28. During 1928-29, while temporary Associate Professor, he worked under Professor Einar Hammarsten on the influence of lipids on the sedimentation of blood corpuscles. During 1931-32 he was an associate of Professor Svedberg a t Uppsala University, where he used the ultracentrifuge in determining the molecular weight of myoglobin. An appointment as Associate Professor in Medical and Physiological Chemistry at Uppsala University in 1932 enabled him to continue his research on myoglobin. Between 1933 and 1935 he held a Rockefeller Fellowship that enabled him to work in Otto Warburg’s laboratory a t Berlin-Dahlem. While with Professor Warburg he developed an interest in oxidation enzymes, a subject which absorbed his attention during the next 35 years. It was while a t Berlin-Dahlem that he identified for the first time “the yellow ferment,” an oxidizing enzyme, and succeeded in splitting it reversibly into a coenzyme fraction (flavin mononucleotide) and a colorless fraction (protein). This was the first demonstration of the reversible separation of an enzyme into its prosthetic group (coenzyme) and a pure protein component (apoenzyme). It was his good fortune that the material he had isolated was essentially 95% carbohydrate and 5% riboflavin, and thus could readily be fractionated by electrophoresis. Dr. Theorell returned to the Karolinska Institute in 1935. In 1937 he was appointed Head of the newly established Biochemical Department of the Nobel Medical Institute, which was located within the Karolinska Institute for ten ycars before moving into its own building in 1947. During the past 35 years Dr. Theorell and his collaborators have conducted significant research on various oxidation enzymes, and hare made important contributions to the knowledge of catalases, cytochrome c, flavoproteins, peroxidases, “pyridine” proteins, and especially alcohol dehydrogenases. Dr. Theorell was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine in 1955. He is a member of learned societies in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Belgium, France, Italy, Poland, and India. H e served as Chairman of the Swedish Medical Society during 194046, as member of the Swedish Society for Medical Research during 1942-50, also as a member of the State Research Council for the Natural Sciences during 1950-54, and as a member of the State Medical Research Council sincc 1958. He also served as Chairman of the Association of Swedish Chemists from 194749, as Chief Editor of the journal Nordisk Medicin, as Chairman of the Swedish National Committee for Biochemistry, and as Chairman of the Board of the Wenner-Gren Society and of the WennerGren Center Foundation. He is currently President of the International Union of Biochemists.
INTBODUCTORY REMAEKS
145
Professor Theorell has been awarded honorary doctoral degrees by the Universities of Paris, Pennsylvania, Louvain, Brussels, and Rio de Janeiro, is a Foreign Member of the Royal Society of London and a Foreign Member of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. He married Elin Margit Elizabeth Alenius in 1931. They had one daughter, Eva Kristine, who died in 1935; and three sons: Klas Thure Gabriel (1935), Henning Hugo (1939), and Per Gunnar Tiires (1942). The0 and Margit have remained deeply devoted to one another during years marked by great tragedy and great success. Music has been a dominant interest throughout Professor Theorell’s life. While he was a boy he traveled the 200 kilometers from Linkoping to Stockholm each week to study under one of the best violin teachers in Sweden at that time. His interest in music was stimulated by his mother who joined him in presenting many concerts in the environs of Stockholm. It is likely also that his interest in music was further encouraged by a rather severe poliomyelitis paralysis that struck him when he was eight years old, for this crippling disease forced him to change from physical to artistic activities. At the time of his matriculation he intended to become a professional musician. However, when several of his friends started to study medicine and when he noted that the medical university fee was only 50 ore (now approximately 10 cents), he suddenly decided on a medical career. While this decision was a great loss for music, it was an equally great gain for science. During his student years he was a fanatic quartet player. It was natural, therefore, that he should select his wife from among those who shared his love for music. His wife is a professional harpsichord player who has taught at the Royal Academy of Music for many years. Today Dr. Theorell is judged to be a fine violinist. He has played most of the first violin scores of the classical string quartet repertoire. His deep interest in providing fine music for others is evident from the fact that for many years he has been chairman of the Stockholm Academic Orchestra and the Stockholm Concert Association. Dr. Theorell is well-endowed with a zest for living. Reports indicate that he is an intrepid boatman who seeks to fill his sails with a lusty wind until tlie sail-yards tremble. Many times he has been swept into the cold waters of thc Stockholm archipelago as he struggled to learn the way of his vessel as it plowed through snarling seas. The many moods of the Baltic, the meeting of sky with earth, the aloneness of the expansive waters, the cadence of the heaving sea, and the quiet of the sun-sparkling calm are all music to his soul.
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ROBERT 8. HARBIS
Professor Axel Hugo Theodor Theorell, scientist, musician, sailor, horticulturist, gastronomist, scholar, and friend, we your colleagues and friends salute you for your achievements and for what you are. We wish Margit and you many years of joyful health and satisfying achievement.
It is a privilege and an honor for me to open this the Sixth Roche Symposium.* On alternate years beginning in 1960, the Editors of Vitamins and Hormones have collaborated with a series of ad hoc committees in planning, producing, and publishing symposia that are critical evaluations of current knowledge concerning individual vitamins, vitamins in relation to anemias and to enzymes. The present symposium is concerned with enzymes that contain vitamins. We take this occasion to thank F. Hoffmann-Le Roche and Co., Basel, Switzerland and Hoffmann-La Roche Co., Nutley, New Jersey for generously underwriting the costs of these symposia and contributing to the costs of publication of the proceedings in Vitamins and Hormones. In the past, each symposium has been dedicated to a scientist who played ,a major role in the discovery of a selected vitamin and the elucidation of its metabolic functions. The honored scientist has been able to attend each symposium, to participate in the proceedings, and to recall the events that surrounded his discovery. At this symposium we meet to honor Professor Axel Hugo Theodor Theorell. Dr. Theorell was born on July 6, 1903 in LinkSping, Sweden. H e is a son of Armida Bill and of Thure Theorell, who served as surgeon-major to the First Life Grenadiers, and practiced medicine in Linkoping. He attended a State Secondary School in LinkSping for nine years and passed his student exam there on May 21, 1921. He received the Bachelor of Medicine degree in 1924 after three years a t the Karolinska Institute, then studied bacteriology during three months at the Pasteur Institute in Paris under Professor C,almette. I n 1930 he presented a thesis on the lipids of plasma and was awarded the M.D. degree. Dr. Theorell served on the staff of the Medico-Chemical Institution *The five previous symposia were: Vitamins A and Carotene, in honor of Professor Paul Karrer and published in Volume 18; Vitamins E, in honor of Professor Herbert E. Evans and published in Volume 20; Vitamin a,in honor of Professor Paul Gyorgy and published in Volume 22; Vitamins K and Related Quinones, in honor of Professor Henrik Dam and published in Volume 24; and Vitamin-Related Anemias, in honor of Professor William B. Castle and published in Volume 26 of Vitaniins and Hormones. 143
144
ROBERT S. HARRIS
between 1924-28. During 1928-29, while temporary Associate Professor, he worked under Professor Einar Hammarsten on the influence of lipids on the sedimentation of blood corpuscles. During 1931-32 he was an associate of Professor Svedberg a t Uppsala University, where he used the ultracentrifuge in determining the molecular weight of myoglobin. An appointment as Associate Professor in Medical and Physiological Chemistry at Uppsala University in 1932 enabled him to continue his research on myoglobin. Between 1933 and 1935 he held a Rockefeller Fellowship that enabled him to work in Otto Warburg’s laboratory a t Berlin-Dahlem. While with Professor Warburg he developed an interest in oxidation enzymes, a subject which absorbed his attention during the next 35 years. It was while a t Berlin-Dahlem that he identified for the first time “the yellow ferment,” an oxidizing enzyme, and succeeded in splitting it reversibly into a coenzyme fraction (flavin mononucleotide) and a colorless fraction (protein). This was the first demonstration of the reversible separation of an enzyme into its prosthetic group (coenzyme) and a pure protein component (apoenzyme). It was his good fortune that the material he had isolated was essentially 95% carbohydrate and 5% riboflavin, and thus could readily be fractionated by electrophoresis. Dr. Theorell returned to the Karolinska Institute in 1935. In 1937 he was appointed Head of the newly established Biochemical Department of the Nobel Medical Institute, which was located within the Karolinska Institute for ten ycars before moving into its own building in 1947. During the past 35 years Dr. Theorell and his collaborators have conducted significant research on various oxidation enzymes, and hare made important contributions to the knowledge of catalases, cytochrome c, flavoproteins, peroxidases, “pyridine” proteins, and especially alcohol dehydrogenases. Dr. Theorell was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine in 1955. He is a member of learned societies in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Belgium, France, Italy, Poland, and India. H e served as Chairman of the Swedish Medical Society during 194046, as member of the Swedish Society for Medical Research during 1942-50, also as a member of the State Research Council for the Natural Sciences during 1950-54, and as a member of the State Medical Research Council sincc 1958. He also served as Chairman of the Association of Swedish Chemists from 194749, as Chief Editor of the journal Nordisk Medicin, as Chairman of the Swedish National Committee for Biochemistry, and as Chairman of the Board of the Wenner-Gren Society and of the WennerGren Center Foundation. He is currently President of the International Union of Biochemists.
INTBODUCTORY REMAEKS
145
Professor Theorell has been awarded honorary doctoral degrees by the Universities of Paris, Pennsylvania, Louvain, Brussels, and Rio de Janeiro, is a Foreign Member of the Royal Society of London and a Foreign Member of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. He married Elin Margit Elizabeth Alenius in 1931. They had one daughter, Eva Kristine, who died in 1935; and three sons: Klas Thure Gabriel (1935), Henning Hugo (1939), and Per Gunnar Tiires (1942). The0 and Margit have remained deeply devoted to one another during years marked by great tragedy and great success. Music has been a dominant interest throughout Professor Theorell’s life. While he was a boy he traveled the 200 kilometers from Linkoping to Stockholm each week to study under one of the best violin teachers in Sweden at that time. His interest in music was stimulated by his mother who joined him in presenting many concerts in the environs of Stockholm. It is likely also that his interest in music was further encouraged by a rather severe poliomyelitis paralysis that struck him when he was eight years old, for this crippling disease forced him to change from physical to artistic activities. At the time of his matriculation he intended to become a professional musician. However, when several of his friends started to study medicine and when he noted that the medical university fee was only 50 ore (now approximately 10 cents), he suddenly decided on a medical career. While this decision was a great loss for music, it was an equally great gain for science. During his student years he was a fanatic quartet player. It was natural, therefore, that he should select his wife from among those who shared his love for music. His wife is a professional harpsichord player who has taught at the Royal Academy of Music for many years. Today Dr. Theorell is judged to be a fine violinist. He has played most of the first violin scores of the classical string quartet repertoire. His deep interest in providing fine music for others is evident from the fact that for many years he has been chairman of the Stockholm Academic Orchestra and the Stockholm Concert Association. Dr. Theorell is well-endowed with a zest for living. Reports indicate that he is an intrepid boatman who seeks to fill his sails with a lusty wind until tlie sail-yards tremble. Many times he has been swept into the cold waters of thc Stockholm archipelago as he struggled to learn the way of his vessel as it plowed through snarling seas. The many moods of the Baltic, the meeting of sky with earth, the aloneness of the expansive waters, the cadence of the heaving sea, and the quiet of the sun-sparkling calm are all music to his soul.
146
ROBERT 8. HARBIS
Professor Axel Hugo Theodor Theorell, scientist, musician, sailor, horticulturist, gastronomist, scholar, and friend, we your colleagues and friends salute you for your achievements and for what you are. We wish Margit and you many years of joyful health and satisfying achievement.