Chemistry Labs

Photo: Mogens Engelund — File:John Ernest Walker.jpg (Wikimedia Commons) · CC BY-SA 3.0

John E. Walker

born 1941 · United Kingdom · Born 1940 or later

Nobel Chemistry 1997

British biochemist who revealed the structure of ATP synthase, the molecular turbine powering nearly all living cells.

Nobel-winning work

Shared the prize with Paul Boyer and Jens Skou for elucidating the enzymatic mechanism of ATP synthesis. Walker solved the crystal structure of the F1 part of ATP synthase, confirming Boyer's prediction that the enzyme works as a rotary motor that snaps ADP and phosphate together.

Fields

Biochemistry and biomedical chemistry

Related topics

Enzymes and enzyme kinetics

Enzymes accelerate reactions by lowering the activation free-energy barrier; they do not change the equilibrium constant.

Metabolism (glycolysis, Krebs cycle, electron transport chain)

Metabolism is a network of linked reactions that captures energy and supplies building blocks; ATP and reduced cofactors connect pathways.

Cryo-EM, protein crystallography

Structural biologists infer molecular architecture from scattered electrons or X-ray diffraction, with distinct sample preparation and data-processing limits.

Chemists in the same field

George P. Smith (1941)Arieh Warshel (1940)Joachim Frank (1940)Thomas A. Steitz (1940)Ada E. Yonath (1939)Sidney Altman (1939)