Bernard Horecker | |
|---|---|
 Horecker in 1966 | |
| Born | Bernard Leonard Horecker (1914-10-31)31 October 1914[1] Chicago, Illinois, USA[1] |
| Died | 10 October 2010(2010-10-10) (aged 95)[1] Fort Myers, Florida, USA[1] |
| Education | University of Chicago (Ph.D. 1939)[1] |
| Known for | Elucidating the pentose phosphate pathway,Current Topics in Cellular Regulation (founding editor) |
| Parents |
|
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Biochemistry |
| Institutions | National institutes of Health,New York University Grossman School of Medicine,Albert Einstein College of Medicine,Roche Institute of Molecular Biology,Cornell University[1] |
| Doctoral advisor | Thorfin R. Hogness[2] |
| Doctoral students | J. Edwin Seegmiller |
Bernard Leonard (Bernie) Horecker (1914–2010) was an American biochemist known for work on thepentose phosphate pathway, and for cellular regulation in general.
Bernard Horecker was born in Chicago on 31 October 1914. He studied at theUniversity of Chicago and obtained his Ph.D. there in 1939. Laureatehonoris causa in Biological Sciences,University of Urbino, Italy, 1982.
Starting as a biochemist at theUnited States Public Health Service at theNational Institutes of Health,Bethesda, Maryland from 1941 to 1959, Horecker moved to theNew York University Grossman School of Medicine, until 1963, then at theAlbert Einstein College of Medicine and theRoche Institute of Molecular Biology inNutley, New Jersey and finally atCornell University.[1]
He was a visiting professor of biochemistry at theUniversity of California in 1954, and a guest research worker at thePasteur Institute, Paris, 1957-1958. Later he had many visiting appointments, both in USA and in other countries, includingParaná (Brazil),Kyoto (Japan),Ferrara (Italy), andRotterdam (The Netherlands).[1]
Horecker was (withEarl Stadtman) founding editor ofCurrent Topics in Cellular Regulation, a major series in the subject, and continued in the role up to volume 23 (1984).[1]
According to Kresge and colleagues[2] Horecker "made seminal contributions to our understanding of the enzyme-catalyzed reactions in carbohydrate metabolism, especially those of the pentose phosphate pathway." He started his scientific career with a manometric study of succinate dehydrogenase.[3]Later he worked withArthur Kornberg on spectroscopic aspects of pyridine nucleotides,[4]with whom he also studied glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase.[5]However, he is best known for his work in elucidating thepentose phosphate pathway.[6][7]Much of his work, especially of the enzymes onaldolase andtransaldolase was done in collaboration with Sandro Pontremoli at theUniversity of Genoa.
Horecker published many papers, of whichWeb of Science[8] lists 450, many of them highly cited. The breadth of his work can be judged from papers on a wide variety of topics, such as galactose oxidase,[9]metabolic formation of phosphglycerate,[10]protein kinase-C,[11]release of alkaline phosphatase from bacterial cells[12]and prothymosin-α.[13]
Horecker was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1961, and received many other awards, including the presidency of theAmerican Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (at the time the American Society of Biological Chemists), and was the first recipient of its Merck Award in 1981. In 1952 he received the Paul Lewis Award in Enzyme Chemistry (now thePfizer Award in Enzyme Chemistry) from the Division of Biological Chemistry of theAmerican Chemical Society.[1][2]
Horecker was twice nominated for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry,[14] byLeopold Ružička in 1957, and byFelix Haurowitz in 1961.[1][2][15]
Bernard Horecker died in Fort Myers, Florida, in 2010, survived by his widow Frances (Goldstein) Horecker.[citation needed]
{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help){{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)