Christian Boehmer Anfinsen

Christian Boehmer Anfinsen (March 26, 1916 – May 14, 1995) was an American biochemist who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1972 for his work on the structure of proteins.

Early life and education

Anfinsen was born in Monessen, Pennsylvania, to Norwegian immigrant parents. He received his B.A. in Chemistry from Swarthmore College in 1937. He earned his M.S. in Organic Chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania in 1939 and his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Harvard University in 1943.

Career

After completing his doctorate, Anfinsen worked as a research associate and later as an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School. In 1950, he joined the National Institutes of Health (NIH) where he began his Nobel Prize-winning research on the structure of proteins.

Anfinsen's most notable work was on the ribonuclease enzyme. He demonstrated that the enzyme's structure was determined by its amino acid sequence. This work led to the formulation of the "Anfinsen's dogma," which states that, in a given environment, a protein molecule will fold into its most stable structure.

In 1982, Anfinsen moved to the Johns Hopkins University where he conducted research until his retirement in 1992.

Personal life and death

Anfinsen was married twice and had three children. He died in 1995 in Randallstown, Maryland.

Legacy

Anfinsen's work has had a profound impact on the field of biochemistry, particularly in the study of protein structure. The "Anfinsen's dogma" is still widely accepted and forms the basis for much of the current research in the field.

See also

• List of Nobel laureates in Chemistry
• History of biochemistry

External links

• Nobel Prize Biography