Ludwig Karl Martin Leonhard Albrecht Kossel (German pronunciation:[ˈalbʁɛçtˈkɔsl̩]ⓘ; 16 September 1853 – 5 July 1927) was a Germanbiochemist and pioneer in the study ofgenetics. He was awarded the Nobel Prize forPhysiology or Medicine in 1910 for his work in determining the chemical composition ofnucleic acids, the genetic substance ofbiological cells.
Kossel was an important influence on and collaborator with other important researchers in biochemistry, includingHenry Drysdale Dakin,Friedrich Miescher,Edwin B. Hart, and his professor and mentor,Felix Hoppe-Seyler. Kossel was editor of theZeitschrift für Physiologische Chemie (Journal of Physiological Chemistry) from 1895 until his death. Kossel also conducted important research into the composition ofprotein, and his research predicted the discovery of thepolypeptide nature of the protein molecule.
Kossel was born inRostock, Germany as the son of themerchant andPrussianconsul Albrecht Karl Ludwig Enoch Kossel and his wife Clara Jeppe Kossel. As a youth, Kossel attended the Gymnasium at Rostock, where he evidenced substantial interest in chemistry and botany.[1]
After completing his university studies, Kossel returned to the University of Strassburg as research assistant to Felix Hoppe-Seyler. At the time, Hoppe-Seyler was intensely interested in research concerning an acidic substance that had first been chemically isolated from pus cells by one of his former students,Friedrich Miescher, in 1869. Unlike protein, the substance contained considerable amounts ofphosphorus, but with its high acidity, it was unlike any cellular substance that had yet been observed.[1]
Kossel showed that the substance, called "nuclein", consisted of a protein component and a non-protein component. Kossel further isolated and described the non-protein component. This substance has become known asnucleic acid, which contains the genetic information found in all living cells.[2]
In 1883, Kossel left Strassburg to become Director of the Chemistry Division of the Physiological Institute at theUniversity of Berlin. In this post, he succeededEugen Baumann and worked under the supervision ofEmil du Bois-Reymond.[1]
Kossel continued his previous work on the nucleic acids. During the period 1885 to 1901, he was able to isolate and name its five constituentorganic compounds:adenine,cytosine,guanine,thymine, anduracil. These compounds are now known collectively asnucleobases, and they provide the molecular structure necessary in the formation of stableDNA andRNA molecules.[2]
In 1895, Kossel was professor of physiology as well as director of the Physiological Institute at theUniversity of Marburg. Around this time, he began investigations into the chemical composition ofproteins, the alterations in proteins during transformation intopeptone, thepeptide components of cells, and other investigations.[1]
In 1896, Kossel discoveredhistidine, then worked out the classical method for the quantitative separation of the "hexone bases" (thealpha-amino acidsarginine,histidine, andlysine). He was also the first to isolatetheophylline, a therapeutic drug found naturally in tea and cocoa beans.
In 1901, Kossel was named to a similar post atHeidelberg University, and became director of the Heidelberg Institute for Protein Investigation. His research predicted the discovery of thepolypeptide nature of the protein molecule.[1]
The processes of life are like a drama, and I am studying the actors, not the plot. There are many actors, and it is their characters which make this drama. I seek to understand their habits, their peculiarities.
On the occasion of his visit to New York City, Kossel was interviewed by a reporter fromThe New York Times. Kossel's English was reportedly very good, and his self-effacing modesty is voluminously mentioned in the reporter's account.[3]
His Herter lecture at Johns Hopkins was titled, "The Proteins". This was the only time Kossel ever visited the United States.[1]
In 1923, Kossel was honored by being named Germany's representative to the Eleventh Physiological Congress inEdinburgh, Scotland. When he appeared before the assembled scientists, they gave him an ovation that lasted several minutes. At the congress, he was conferred an honorary degree by theUniversity of Edinburgh.[1]
During the last years of Kossel's life, he conducted important research into the composition of the protein typesprotamines andhistones, and introducedflavianic acid for the quantitative separation of arginine, histidine and lysine in proteins.[4] A monograph describing this work was published shortly after his death.[1]
Kossel contributed to early issues of theZeitschrift für Physiologische Chemie (Journal of Physiological Chemistry). This publication was founded by his professor and mentor,Felix Hoppe-Seyler, in 1877, the same year that Kossel started work as his research assistant. After Hoppe-Seyler's death in 1895, Kossel took over editorship of the Zeitschrift and continued in that role until his own death in 1927.[1]
In 1886, Kossel married Luise Holtzman, daughter ofAdolf Holtzmann. Holtzmann was Professor at theUniversity of Heidelberg, lecturing inGerman literature as well asSanskrit. He was also a notedphilologist of his day. The couple had three children, two of whom survived to maturity: Walther, born in 1888, and daughter Gertrude, born in 1889.[1]
Albrecht Kossel was apparently not greatly interested in politics, but in 1914 he did not sign the propaganda Pronunciamento of German professors at the start of the war. He suffered under the lies which filled the world in war time. In 1917 Kossel was summoned by the government to pronounce that the allotted food provisions were sufficient. He refused this demand, would never declare untruths as truths[1]
The study of the living organism has more and more led to the view that its smallest independent units morphologically speaking – the cells – also to a certain degree lead an independent life and are the real seats of the vital processes. The cells therefore attract special attention in biological research, and studies which widen our knowledge of the cells to any important extent deserve to be given prominence.Prof. Kossel has chosen to devote himself to this field of research, and it is for his work in this respect that the Nobel Prize has been awarded to him this year.
— Nobel Prize Introduction Speech, December 10, 1910[5]
" … his elucidation of the chemical nature of some building blocks that make up nucleic acids and chromatine has secured immortality for this exeedingly modest and almost shy man."[6]
Untersuchungen über die Nukleine und ihre Spaltungsprodukte ("Investigations into the nucleins and their cleavage products", 1881)
Die Gewebe des menschlichen Körpers und ihre mikroskopische Untersuchung ("The tissues in the human body and their microscopic investigation", 1889–1891)
Leitfaden für medizinisch-chemische Kurse ("Textbook for medical-chemical courses", 1888)
Die Probleme der Biochemie ("The problems of biochemistry", 1908)
Die Beziehungen der Chemie zur Physiologie ("The relationships between chemistry and physiology", 1913)
^Kossel, A. and R. E. Gross (1924). "Über die Darstellung und quantitative Bestimmung des Arginins".Hoppe-Seyler's Zeitschrift für physiologische Chemie.135 (1–4):167–174.doi:10.1515/bchm2.1924.135.1-4.167.
