William H. Stein
1911–1980 · United States · 20th century
Nobel Chemistry 1972
American biochemist at the Rockefeller Institute who, with Stanford Moore, invented automated amino-acid analysis and mapped the active centre of ribonuclease.
Nobel Prize work
With Stanford Moore, he developed ion-exchange chromatography and the automatic amino-acid analyzer, then used them to determine the complete sequence of ribonuclease. Chemical labeling of the enzyme identified the residues forming its active centre, linking chemical structure directly to catalytic activity.
Fields
Related topics
Ion chromatography, capillary electrophoresis
Ion chromatography separates by ion-exchange retention; capillary electrophoresis separates by electrophoretic mobility in an electric field.
Enzymes and enzyme kinetics
Enzymes accelerate reactions by lowering the activation free-energy barrier; they do not change the equilibrium constant.