Biography of severo ochoa

1. Biography of Severo Ochoa
2. Discoveries and Achievements
3. Legacy and Honors

Biography of Severo Ochoa

Severo Ochoa, an American biochemist, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1959. He was born in Luarca, Spain, and was the youngest son of judge and businessman Severo Ochoa and Carmen (Albornoz) Ochoa. He received his primary education in Luarca and Malaga. During his college years in Malaga, Ochoa was deeply influenced by the books of Spanish neurologist Santiago Ramon y Cajal. After completing his Bachelor of Arts degree in humanities in 1921, he enrolled in medical school at the University of Madrid, where he graduated with distinction in 1929.

For the next two years, Ochoa studied biochemistry and muscle tissue physiology as a research assistant under Otto Meyerhof at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes in Heidelberg and Berlin, with the support of the Spanish Council for Scientific Research. In 1931, he returned to the University of Madrid as a lecturer in physiology and biochemistry. The following year, Ochoa spent time at the National Institute for Medical Research in London, where he focused on enzymology. Upon his return to Madrid in 1935, he became the head of the Department of Physiology at the Institute for Medical Research.

When the Spanish Civil War broke out in 1936, Ochoa and his wife left the country. Over the next five years, he worked in laboratories in Germany and England, including the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg, the Marine Biology Laboratory in Plymouth, and the Medical School of Oxford University. During this period, Ochoa studied the function of thiamine (vitamin B1) and intermediary metabolism – the biochemical reactions through which carbohydrates and fatty acids produce energy for cellular processes.

In 1941, during the onset of World War II, Ochoa emigrated to the United States and obtained American citizenship in 1956. He became a professor and research scientist in the Department of Pharmacology at Washington University in St. Louis, where he worked with renowned scientists Carl F. and Gerty T. Cori in the field of carbohydrate metabolism. Starting in 1942, after assuming a position as a research scientist, Ochoa's career was associated with the School of Medicine at New York University, initially as an assistant professor of biochemistry (1945), then as a professor and head of the Department of Pharmacology (1946), and finally as a professor of biochemistry (1954). In 1949, he was appointed a visiting professor of biochemistry at the University of California, Berkeley.

Discoveries and Achievements

Ochoa's research focused on cellular energy sources, particularly adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which is rich in energy and serves as the primary source of energy for cellular processes. He discovered that the complete oxidation of one molecule of glucose into carbon dioxide yields 36 molecules of ATP. He also elucidated the mechanism of the citric acid cycle, identifying enzymes such as citrate synthase, isocitrate dehydrogenase, and malate dehydrogenase.

Investigating photosynthesis, Ochoa revealed the additional role of malic enzyme in the process. He also made significant contributions to the understanding of genetics, specifically the synthesis of proteins. Ochoa isolated the bacterial enzyme polynucleotide phosphorylase, which catalyzes the reversible synthesis of polyribonucleotides from ribonucleoside diphosphates. Through this enzyme, he synthesized RNA molecules with different combinations of nitrogenous bases, enabling him to decode the triplet code for 11 amino acids. This breakthrough paved the way for deciphering the genetic code.

For his discoveries, Ochoa shared the 1959 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Arthur Kornberg "for their discovery of the mechanisms in the biological synthesis of ribonucleic acid and deoxyribonucleic acid." In his Nobel Prize address, Axel Hugo Theorell commended Ochoa's research as heroic and predicted future breakthroughs in biochemistry, virus studies, genetics, and cancer research as a result of Ochoa's and Kornberg's work.

Legacy and Honors

Ochoa received numerous awards and honors throughout his career. Notable among these are the Karl Meyer Nobeling Medal from the American Society of European Chemists (1951), the Charles Leopold Mayer Prize from the French Society of Biochemistry (1955), the Borden Award for Medical Research from the Association of American Medical Colleges (1958), the University Medal from New York University (1959), and the Order of the Rising Sun from the Japanese government (1967). He also received honorary degrees from the University of Washington, Wesleyan University, Oxford University, University of Pennsylvania, Brandeis University, University of Michigan, University of Glasgow, and Yeshiva University.

Ochoa was a member of several prestigious scientific societies, including the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the National Academy of Sciences, the New York Academy of Sciences, the New York Academy of Medicine, the American Society of Biochemistry, the American Chemical Society, the National Academy of Sciences, the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine, the American Philosophical Society, the Biochemical Society (UK), and the Royal Academies of Sciences in Madrid, Barcelona, and Germany (Leopoldina). He was also an international member of the Royal Society of London, the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, and the Polish Academy of Sciences.

After retiring from the School of Medicine at New York University in 1975, Ochoa became a member of the New Jersey Institute for Medical Research. He was married to Carmen Garcia Cobian, the daughter of a Spanish judge and businessman, in 1931, but they had no children.

Ochoa's contributions to biochemistry and genetics continue to have a lasting impact on scientific research and understanding.