Edwin G. Krebs (nonfiction)

Edwin Gerhard Krebs.

Edwin Gerhard Krebs (June 6, 1918 – December 21, 2009) was an American biochemist. He received the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research and the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize of Columbia University in 1989 together with Alfred Gilman and, together with his collaborator Edmond H. Fischer, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1992 for describing how reversible phosphorylation works as a switch to activate proteins and regulate various cellular processes.

Krebs enrolled at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1936. In his fourth year of study Krebs had decided to either pursue a higher degree in organic chemistry or study medicine. Receiving a scholarship to attend Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, he chose the latter.

The School of Medicine afforded Krebs the opportunity to train as a physician as well as to gain experience in medical research. Following graduation in 1943, he undertook an 18-month residency at Barnes Hospital in St. Louis and then went on active duty as a medical officer in the Navy. Krebs was discharged from the Navy in 1946 and was unable to immediately return to hospital work; he was advised to study basic science instead. He chose to study biochemistry and was postdoctoral fellow to Carl and Gerty Cori, working on the interaction of protamine with rabbit muscle phosphorylase. At the completion of his two years' study, Krebs decided to continue his career as a biochemist.

In 1948 Krebs accepted a position as assistant professor of biochemistry at the University of Washington, Seattle. When Edmond H. Fischer arrived at the Department in 1953, the pair decided to work on the enzymology of phosphorylase. During the course of their study they were able to observe the mechanism by which interconversion of the two forms of phosphorylase takes place: reversible protein phosphorylation.

Fischer and Krebs were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1992 for the discovery of reversible protein phosphorylation, .

Krebs's interest in teaching and administration led him to leave the University of Washington to become the founding chairman of the Department of Biochemistry at the University of California, Davis. In 1977 he returned to the University of Washington as Chairman of the Department of Pharmacology.

Krebs died on December 21, 2009. He is survived by his wife Virginia and three children.

Edwin Krebs is not to be confused with Hans Adolf Krebs (1900–1981), who was also a Nobel Prize–winning biochemist and who discovered the citric acid cycle, which is also known as the Krebs cycle.

Fiction cross-reference

• Crimes against chemical constants
• Gnomon algorithm
• Gnomon Chronicles

Nonfiction cross-reference

• Chemistry (nonfiction)
• Gerty Cori (nonfiction)

External links:

• Edwin G. Krebs @ Wikipedia