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James B. Sumner
1887–1955 · United States · Born in the 1800s
Nobel Chemistry 1946
American biochemist who in 1926 crystallized the enzyme urease from jack beans and proved it to be a pure protein — work initially doubted but honored with the 1946 Nobel Prize.
Nobel Prize work
In 1926 Sumner isolated jack-bean urease as the first crystalline enzyme and proved that it is a pure protein — establishing that enzymes are chemical substances with a defined structure and opening the era of enzyme purification and structural enzymology.
Fields
Related topics
Protein structure and function
A protein is a sequence that folds into a shape; its surface and flexibility help determine what it can bind or catalyse.
Enzymes and enzyme kinetics
Enzymes accelerate reactions by lowering the activation free-energy barrier; they do not change the equilibrium constant.