Max Bergmann | |
---|---|
Born | |
Died | 7 November 1944 58) | (aged
Alma mater | Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Friedrich Wilhelm University |
Known for | Carboxybenzyl protecting group |
Spouse | Emmy Bergmann |
Children | Peter Bergmann (physicist) |
Scientific career | |
Fields | peptide chemistry |
Institutions | Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Leather Research Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research |
Doctoral advisor | Ignaz Bloch |
Doctoral students | Leonidas Zervas |
Max Bergmann (12 February 1886 – 7 November 1944) was a Jewish-German biochemist. Together with Leonidas Zervas, the discoverer of the group, they were the first to use the carboxybenzyl protecting group for the synthesis of oligopeptides.
Bergmann was born in Fürth, Bavaria, Germany on February 12, 1886, the seventh child of coal wholesalers Salomon and Rosalie Bergmann.
Bergmann started studying Biology at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, but lectures by Adolf von Baeyer captured his interest and eventually persuaded him to switch to Organic Chemistry. He continued his chemical studies at the Friedrich Wilhelm University of Berlin, where he was taught by Emil Fischer. After receiving his PhD under the supervision of Ignaz Bloch [ de] in 1911 for his thesis on acyl(polysulfides), he became the assistant to Fischer at the University of Berlin, where he stayed until Fischer's death in 1919. He received his habilitation in 1921.
In 1922 Bergmann was made the first director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Leather Research in Dresden, which was created in 1921 and from which the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry descends. [1] It was there that he worked with his former doctoral student, Leonidas Zervas, who eventually rose to vice-director of the institute and briefly succeeded Bergmann as director. [2] In the early 1930s, the two scientists developed the Bergmann-Zervas carbobenzoxy method for the synthesis of polypeptides, which started the field of controlled peptide chemical synthesis and remained the dominant method in it for the next 20 years. Bergmann and Zervas gained international academic fame as a result. [2]
Bergmann was nonetheless forced to abandon his institute due to his Jewish origin after the passage of the Civil Service Law and emigrated from Nazi Germany in 1933. [2] He moved to the USA and was thereafter active as a senior researcher at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research in New York. [1] There, he was the main specialist in protein chemistry and contributed to the great progress of the US in the area of molecular biology. Two eventual Nobel Prize winners (William Howard Stein and Stanford Moore), as well as numerous postdoctoral students (including Klaus H. Hofmann) worked in his laboratory.
Bergmann is considered an important figure in synthetic organic chemistry and biochemistry. He specialized in decoding peptide structures, while also researching their synthesis.
He died in the Mount Sinai Hospital, New York City, on 7 November 1944.
He was elected in 1936 a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. [3] Since 1980, the Max-Bergmann-Kreis (MBK) company of German peptide chemists awards the Bergmann golden medal for peptide science, with the first medal given to Zervas. In 2002 the Max Bergmann Center was created in Dresden.
Vincent du Vigneaud was an American biochemist. He was recipient of the 1955 Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his work on biochemically important sulphur compounds, especially for the first synthesis of a polypeptide hormone," a reference to his work on the peptide hormone oxytocin.
The Kaiser Wilhelm Society for the Advancement of Science was a German scientific institution established in the German Empire in 1911. Its functions were taken over by the Max Planck Society. The Kaiser Wilhelm Society was an umbrella organisation for many institutes, testing stations, and research units created under its authority.
Hermann Emil Louis Fischer was a German chemist and 1902 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He discovered the Fischer esterification. He also developed the Fischer projection, a symbolic way of drawing asymmetric carbon atoms. He also hypothesized lock and key mechanism of enzyme action. He never used his first given name, and was known throughout his life simply as Emil Fischer.
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The Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize, or Leibniz Prize, is awarded by the German Research Foundation to "exceptional scientists and academics for their outstanding achievements in the field of research". Since 1986, up to ten prizes have been awarded annually to individuals or research groups working at a research institution in Germany or at a German research institution abroad. It is considered the most important research award in Germany.
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The Bergmann degradation is a series of chemical reactions designed to remove a single amino acid from the carboxylic acid (C-terminal) end of a peptide. First demonstrated by Max Bergmann in 1934, it is a rarely used method for sequencing peptides. The later developed Edman degradation is an improvement upon the Bergmann degradation, instead cleaving the N-terminal amino acid of peptides to produce a hydantoin containing the desired amino acid.
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Horst Kessler is a German chemist and emeritus Professor of Excellence at the Institute for Advanced Study at the Technical University of Munich (TUM). Kessler works in the area of bioorganic chemistry, in particular peptide synthesis, and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. He also made contributions to magnetic resonance imaging.
Helma B. Wennemers is a German organic chemist. She is a professor of organic chemistry at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich.
Günther Jung is a German chemist. He was professor for Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Tübingen from 1973 to 2002.
Leonidas Zervas was a Greek organic chemist who made seminal contributions in peptide chemical synthesis. Together with his mentor Max Bergmann they laid the foundations for the field in 1932 with their major discovery, the Bergmann-Zervas carboxybenzoxy oligopeptide synthesis which remained unsurpassed in utility for the next two decades. The carboxybenzyl protecting group he discovered is often abbreviated Z in his honour.
Iphigenia Photaki was a Greek organic chemist remembered for her contributions in peptide chemical synthesis, especially in the synthesis of biologically/enzymatically active peptides.
Luis Moroder is an Italian peptide chemist, who pioneered research on the interactions between peptide hormones and cell membrane-bound hormone receptors. He later expanded this research to other biological systems of medical relevance such as protein inhibitors, collagens, and synthetic proteins. A hallmark of his research is interdisciplinarity as reflected in his use and development of methods in organic chemistry, biophysics and molecular biology. He is a co-editor of the five-volume Houben-Weyl, Methods of Organic Chemistry, Synthesis of Peptides and Peptidomimetics. Since 2008 he is the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Peptide Science, the official journal of the European Peptide Society.
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