Proteins are involved in most cell functions, and in most body functions such as digestion and movement. Because of proteins' important and varied functions, they are closely regulated by the body through enzymes. The enzymes fine tune the working of a protein by attaching one or more phosphate groups to it. This is called "phosphorylation." Fischer and Krebs first purified and described an enzyme which regulates proteins by removing phosphate groups from the protein-"reversible protein phosphorylation." They did this by studying how muscles get energy to contract. Reversible protein phosphorylation affects nearly all bodily processes such as blood pressure, brain signals, and immune responses to several diseases, including cancer. For information about Fischer and Krebs' work, see www.nobel.se/medicine/laureates/1992/press.html.
"This is yet another example of what makes fundamental research so attractive: one knows where one takes off but one never knows where one will end up."
Edmond
–Edmond H. Fischer, Les Prix Nobel, 1992
Edmond Fischer was born in Shanghai, China, April 6, 1920 to an Austrian father and French mother. He was educated in Switzerland at the School of Chemistry, and came to the University of Washington, Seattle in the early 1950s to teach biochemistry. He became interested in enzymes during his early work in Switzerland, trying to discover the molecular structure of starch and glycogen. For more information about Fischer, see www.nobel.se/medicine/laureates/1992/fischer-autobio.html.
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Scientists build on each other's work. Furchgott, while studying the effects of drugs on blood vessels, discovered that blood vessels dilate when their surface cells (the endothelium) signal the muscle cells to relax, using a molecule he called "endothelium-derived relaxing factor" or EDRF. Murad noticed that nitroglycerin (which dilates blood vessels) releases the gas nitric oxide (NO) which relaxes the smooth muscles. Ignarro also analyzed EDRF and discovered at the same time as Furchgott that EDRF was truly NO. This was the first evidence that a gas may act as a signal molecule. NO has recently been found to be important in fighting infections, regulating blood pressure, and activating brain functions. For more information about their work, see www.nobel.se/medicine/laureates/1998/press.html
"I think that my greatest pleasure has come from each first demonstration in my laboratory that experiments designed to test a new hypothesis developed to explain some earlier, often puzzling or paradoxical finding, have given results consistent with the hypothesis."
Robert
–Robert F. Furchgott, Les Prix Nobel, 1998
Robert F. Furchgott was born in Charleston, South Carolina in 1916, with an innate interest in biology and science. He attended both the Universities of South and North Carolina and did his Ph.D. work at Northwestern University in Chicago. He worked at Cornell University Medical College on phosphates, Washington University in St. Louis on smooth muscles, and at Suny Medical Center in Brooklyn on the relaxation of blood vessels. For more about Furchgott, see www.nobel.se/medicine/laureates/1998/furchgott-autobio.html.
