Wang Yinglai | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 王应睐 | |||||||||
 Wang Yinglai at Cambridge University in 1938 | |||||||||
| Born | (1907-11-13)13 November 1907 | ||||||||
| Died | 5 May 2001(2001-05-05) (aged 93) Shanghai, China | ||||||||
| Alma mater | University of Nanking University of Cambridge | ||||||||
| Known for | Total chemical synthesis ofinsulin andtRNA | ||||||||
| Spouse | Liu Runling | ||||||||
| Awards | Special Achievement Award, Miami Winter Symposium (1988) Ho Leung Ho Lee Prize (1996) | ||||||||
| Scientific career | |||||||||
| Fields | Biochemistry | ||||||||
| Institutions | University of Cambridge Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry | ||||||||
| Doctoral advisor | David Keilin | ||||||||
| Notable students | Li Zaiping,Xu Genjun,Hong Guofan,Liu Xinyuan,Wang Enduo | ||||||||
| Chinese name | |||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 王應睞 | ||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 王应睐 | ||||||||
| |||||||||
Wang Yinglai (simplified Chinese:王应睐;traditional Chinese:王應睞;Pe̍h-ōe-jī:Ông Eng-lāi; 13 November 1907 – 5 May 2001), also known asYing-Lai Wang, was a Chinese biochemist recognized as the first person to create syntheticinsulin,[1][2] a major scientific breakthrough that produced a biologically active compound from inorganic chemicals.[2] He was one of the first group of scientists elected to theChinese Academy of Sciences in 1955. He founded theShanghai Institute of Biochemistry in 1958 and served as its director until his retirement in 1984.
Wang was born inKinmen County (Quemoy),Fujian Province on 13 November 1907, in the final years of theQing dynasty.[3] He became an orphan at the age of six when his mother died.[2] His father, anOverseas Chinese merchant, had died four years before.[3] Despite the adverse circumstances, he pursued an education throughout the 1920s and 1930s, when China was mired in wars and turmoil. He graduated from the Department of Chemistry of theUniversity of Nanking (Jinling University) and was admitted to the graduate school of theUniversity of Cambridge in 1938, where he studied underDavid Keilin. After obtaining his Ph.D. in 1941, Wang stayed to teach at Cambridge and conduct research at theDunn Nutritional Laboratory. He transferred to theMolteno Institute for Research in Parasitology in 1944.[2]
Wang returned to China at the end of World War II despite efforts by Keilin andJoseph Needham to persuade him to stay at Cambridge. Determined to help develop scientific research in China, he accepted a research professorship at the medical school of theNational Central University inNanjing, and later joined the Medical Institute ofAcademia Sinica in 1948.[2]
After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, Wang became deputy director of the newly established Shanghai Institute of Physiology and Biochemistry, under directorBei Shizhang. In 1955, he was among the first group of scientists to be elected to the newly establishedChinese Academy of Sciences. In 1958, he established theShanghai Institute of Biochemistry and served as its director until his retirement in 1984.[2] In these capacities, he recruited many prominent Chinese scientists from abroad, including future academiciansCao Tianqin,Chen-Lu Tsou (Zou Chenglu),Wang Debao andNiu Jingyi.[4][5]
Wang's most significant contribution was the total chemical synthesis of insulin. He started the project in 1958 with a team of scientists, who first synthesized the 20amino acids that constitute proteins, and then used them to produce chains of insulin. His team successfully synthesized insulin in 1965, the first in the world to do so. It was a major breakthrough to produce a biologically active compound from inorganic chemicals.[2]
Many scientists, including theNobel Prize committee memberArne Tiselius and Physics laureateChen-Ning Yang,[1] believed Wang's total synthesis of insulin was worthy of a Nobel Prize.[6] However, theCultural Revolution (1966–1976) intervened and the Chinese Communist government considered the Nobel Prize a symbol of Western decadence. Instead, Wang was held a virtual prisoner[6] in a building at his institute and forced to studyMao Zedong thought. He was unable to conduct research for most of the ten years.[6] During an interview in 1986, Wang toldThe Straits Times that "we were like the proverbial hare which took a long nap while others were not like the tortoise".[1]
After the end of the Cultural Revolution, Wang and his team resumed their work and achieved the synthesis from inorganic chemicals of atransfer RNA (tRNA), another significant biological molecule, in the late 1970s.[2]
Wang established several training programs for young biochemists, many of whom later became accomplished scientists, including academiciansLi Zaiping,Xu Genjun,Hong Guofan,Liu Xinyuan,[4] andWang Enduo.[7]
In 1988,William Joseph Whelan, the founder of the Miami Winter Symposium for Biotechnology, created the Special Achievement Award of the symposium and presented the first award to Wang.[8] In 1996, he was nominated by many scientists for theHo Leung Ho Lee Prize for Achievement in Science and Technology. When he won the award with its prize money of one million yuan, he used it to fund a scholarship for graduate students at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.[4]
Wang met Liu Runling (刘润苓), a student atYenching University, when he was recuperating fromtuberculosis in Beijing. They married and had two sons, Wang Jiahu (王家槲) and Wang Jianan (王家楠). Liu worked as a teacher and started a kindergarten. She suffered fromAlzheimer's disease in old age and died in 1992.[9]
Wang died in Shanghai on 5 May 2001, aged 93.[2] AcademicianXu Genjun eulogized Wang with a quotation from theTao Te Ching: "The top class of virtue is like water, which benefits ten thousand objects without any demands for return."[4]
Source:[3]
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
