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John Howard Northrop
Born	July 5, 1891(1891-07-05) Yonkers, New York, USA
Died	May 27, 1987 (aged 95) Wickenburg, Arizona, USA
Nationality	United States
Fields	Biochemistry
Institutions	Columbia University Rockefeller University
Alma mater	Columbia University
Doctoral advisor	Jacques Loeb
Known for	Studies of enzymes
Notable awards	Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1946)

John Howard Northrop (July 5, 1891 – May 27, 1987) was an American biochemist who won, with James Batcheller Sumner and Wendell Meredith Stanley, the 1946 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The award was given for these scientists' isolation, crystallization, and study of enzymes, proteins, and viruses.^[1]

Biography

Early years

Northrop was born in Yonkers, New York to John I., a zoologist and instructor at Columbia University, and Alice R. Northrop, a teacher of botany at Hunter College. His father died in a lab explosion two weeks before John H. Northrop was born. The son was educated at Columbia University, where he earned his PhD in chemistry in 1915. During World War I, he conducted research for the U.S. Army Chemical Warfare Service on the production of acetone and ethanol through fermentation. This work led to studying enzymes.

Research

In 1929, Northrop isolated and crystallized the gastric enzyme pepsin^[2] and determined that it was a protein. In 1938 he isolated and crystallized the first bacteriophage (a small virus that attacks bacteria), and determined that it was a nucleoprotein. Northrop also isolated and crystallized pepsinogen (the precursor to pepsin), trypsin, chymotrypsin, and carboxypeptidase.

His 1939 book, Crystalline Enzymes, was an important text. Northrop was employed by the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research in New York City from 1916 to 1961, at which time he retired.

Personal life

In 1917, Northrop married Louise Walker, with whom he had two children: John, an oceanographer, and Alice, who married Nobel laureate Frederick C. Robbins. Northrop committed suicide in Wickenberg, Arizona in 1987.^[3]

References

1. ^ "The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1946 - Preparing Pure Proteins". http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1946/speedread.html. Retrieved 2008-12-14.  
2. ^ Northrop, J. H. (1929), "Crystalline Pepsin", Science 69: 580, doi:10.1126/science.69.1796.580  
3. ^ See p. 440 of Herriott, R. M. (1994), "John Howard Northrop: July 5, 1891-May 27, 1987", Biographical Memoirs. National Academy of Sciences (U.S.) 63: 423–50, http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=4560&page=423  

Further reading

• Economos, A. C.; Lints, F. A. (1985), "Growth rate and life span in Drosophila V. The effect of prolongation of the period of growth on the total duration of life (J.H. Northrop, 1917)--revisited", Mech. Ageing Dev. 33 (1): 103–13, 1985 Dec, doi:10.1016/0047-6374(85)90112-5, PMID 3908838  
• Herriott, R. M. (1981), "John Howard Northrop", J. Gen. Physiol. 77 (6): 597–9, 1981 Jun, doi:10.1085/jgp.77.6.597, PMID 7021760  
• Herriott, R. M. (1994), "John Howard Northrop: July 5, 1891-May 27, 1987", Biographical Memoirs. National Academy of Sciences (U.S.) 63: 423–50, PMID 11615389, http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=4560&page=423  

* See also this version of Northrop's National Academy of Science biography.

• Northrop, J. H. (1939), Crystalline Enzymes, Columbia University Press  
• Shampo, M A; Kyle, R. A. (2000), "John Northrop--definitive study of enzymes", Mayo Clin. Proc. 75 (3): 254, 2000 March, PMID 10725951  
• van Helvoort, T. (1992), "The controversy between John H. Northrop and Max Delbrück on the formation of bacteriophage: bacterial synthesis or autonomous multiplication?", Annals of Science 49 (6): 545–75, 1992 November, doi:10.1080/00033799200200451, PMID 11616207  

External links

• Northrop's Nobel Foundation biography
• Northrop's Nobel Lecture The Preparation of Pure Enzymes and Virus Proteins