Photo: Unknown author — File:John Howard Northrop.jpg (Wikimedia Commons) · Public domain
John Howard Northrop
1891–1987 · United States · Born in the 1800s
Nobel Chemistry 1946
American biochemist at the Rockefeller Institute whose crystallization of enzymes established that they are pure proteins, founding modern enzymology.
Nobel-winning work
Crystallized the enzymes pepsin, trypsin and chymotrypsin in pure form, proving rigorously that enzymes are proteins with defined chemical structure. He also crystallized a bacterial virus (bacteriophage), showing that viruses behave like chemical substances.
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.