Edwin Krebs American biochemist Date of Birth: 06.06.1918 Country: USA

1. Biography of Edwin Krebs
2. Education and Military Service
3. Research on Protein Phosphorylation
4. Nobel Prize and Legacy

Biography of Edwin Krebs

Edwin Krebs was an American biochemist and the recipient of the 1992 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discoveries regarding reversible protein phosphorylation as a mechanism of biological regulation. He was born on June 6, 1918, in the town of Lansing, Iowa, to a Presbyterian minister.

Education and Military Service

Krebs enrolled at the University of Illinois in 1936 and completed his medical education at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1943. Following his graduation, he served in the United States Navy until 1946. After his military service, Krebs continued his scientific education in the biochemical laboratory of Carl and Gerty Cori, who had received the Nobel Prize in 1947 for their research on glycogen metabolism.

Research on Protein Phosphorylation

In 1948, Krebs decided to pursue a career in biochemistry and began working at the University of Washington in Seattle. In 1953, together with Edmond Fischer, who had come to the university from Switzerland, he began studying the regulation of glycogen phosphorylase activity. They discovered that a series of reactions, triggered by hormones and calcium, led to the activation-inactivation of this enzyme. The activation-inactivation process was caused by reversible phosphorylation of the enzyme. The process, discovered by Fischer and Krebs, is catalyzed by two enzymes: protein kinase and phosphatase. Protein kinases, with tyrosine kinase being the most common type, transfer a phosphate group from ATP to the hydroxyl group of the enzyme. This results in a conformational change in the enzyme, rendering it catalytically active. Subsequently, protein phosphatase removes the phosphate group, returning the enzyme to its original inactive form. It was found that such cyclic regulation of enzymatic activity and corresponding metabolic processes is extremely widespread in nature.

Nobel Prize and Legacy

In 1992, Fischer and Krebs were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discovery of reversible protein phosphorylation. Their groundbreaking work has had a significant impact on the understanding of cell signaling and the regulation of various biological processes. Edwin Krebs's contributions to the field of biochemistry have left a lasting legacy and continue to inspire further research in the field.