H. Franklin Bunn

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H. Franklin Bunn
Born (1935-07-07) July 7, 1935 (age 88)
Alma mater Harvard and University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
Known forCo-discovery of glycated hemoglobin
AwardsFellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Scientific career
Fields Biochemistry
Institutions Harvard Medical School

H. Franklin Bunn (born July 7, 1935) is an American physician, hematologist and biochemist at Harvard Medical School, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is known for his co-discovery of glycated hemoglobin or A1C, a major diagnostic indicator of pre-diabetes and diabetes. [1]

Contents

Early life and education

Bunn attended the Pingry School in Elizabeth, New Jersey. He received the AB degree from Harvard in 1957 majoring in chemistry and the MD from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in 1961. After a medical residency at New York Hospital, he completed a fellowship in hematology at the Thorndike Laboratory under mentorship of James Jandl

Career

Frank Bunn has been a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School since 1979. From 1976 to 1982 he was Director of the Hematology Division at Brigham and Women's Hospital. From 1977 to 1989 he was an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. For nearly 50 years Bunn played a major role in training medical students at Harvard Medical School, and residents and fellows at Brigham and Women's Hospital. From 1991 until 1998, he directed the Harvard-Markey Program in Biomedical Sciences, which provides graduate students an added year of training in human biology and disease pathophysiology.

The first 20 years of Bunn's research focused on hemoglobin. [2] His major work included

The second 20 years of Bunn's research focused on identification of domains on erythropoietin (EPO) that bind to its receptor, and on characterizing the oxygen-dependent degradation domain of the HIFa transcription factor responsible for hypoxic induction of EPO and other physiologically relevant proteins.

Awards

Personal

Bunn has been married to Elizabeth Godard for over 50 years. They have three sons, George, Emory, and Andrew, and five grandsons.

Related Research Articles

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Hemoglobin is a protein containing iron that facilitates the transport of oxygen in red blood cells. Almost all vertebrates contain hemoglobin, with the exception of the fish family Channichthyidae and the tissues of some invertebrate animals. Hemoglobin in the blood carries oxygen from the respiratory organs to the other tissues of the body, where it releases the oxygen to enable aerobic respiration which powers the animal's metabolism. A healthy human has 12 to 20 grams of hemoglobin in every 100 mL of blood. Hemoglobin is a metalloprotein, a chromoprotein, and globulin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blood glucose monitoring</span> Use of a glucose monitor for testing the concentration of glucose in the blood

Blood glucose monitoring is the use of a glucose meter for testing the concentration of glucose in the blood (glycemia). Particularly important in diabetes management, a blood glucose test is typically performed by piercing the skin to draw blood, then applying the blood to a chemically active disposable 'test-strip'. The other main option is continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). Different manufacturers use different technology, but most systems measure an electrical characteristic and use this to determine the glucose level in the blood. Skin-prick methods measure capillary blood glucose, whereas CGM correlates interstitial fluid glucose level to blood glucose level. Measurements may occur after fasting or at random nonfasting intervals, each of which informs diagnosis or monitoring in different ways.

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Glycated hemoglobin is a form of hemoglobin (Hb) that is chemically linked to a sugar. Most monosaccharides, including glucose, galactose and fructose, spontaneously bond with hemoglobin when present in the bloodstream. However, glucose is only 21% as likely to do so as galactose and 13% as likely to do so as fructose, which may explain why glucose is used as the primary metabolic fuel in humans.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">1,5-Anhydroglucitol</span> Chemical compound

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Stuart Holland Orkin is an American physician, stem cell biologist and researcher in pediatric hematology-oncology. He is the David G. Nathan Distinguished Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. Orkin's research has focused on the genetic basis of blood disorders. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine, and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

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Nancy Berliner is an American hematologist. In January 2020, Berliner was named the editor-in-chief of the journal Blood.

References

  1. Bunn, HF (2013). "Embedded in the red cell". The Hematologist. 10 (2): 14–15. doi:10.1182/hem.V10.2.1072.
  2. Bunn, HF (2013). "Practicing biochemistry without a license". J. Biol. Chem. 288 (7): 5062–5071. doi: 10.1074/jbc.X113.451591 . PMC   3576109 . PMID   23300076.
  3. H. Franklin Bunn being awarded the Distinguished Graduate Alumni Scholar Award from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
  4. H. Franklin Bunn receiving the Coulter Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society of Heamtology