BLOCH, KONRAD

BLOCH, KONRAD (1912–2000), U.S. biochemist and Nobel laureate. Bloch was born in Neisse, Germany (now Poland) and graduated from the Technische Hochschule of Munich in 1934. Forced to leave because he was Jewish, Bloch found a temporary position at the Schweizerische Forschungsinstitut in Davos, Switzerland. In 1936 he immigrated to the United States (becoming an American citizen in 1944) and joined the Department of Biochemistry, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University. New York. After obtaining his doctorate at Columbia University in 1938, he became a member of the staff there. His collaboration with R. Schoenheimer\>\> stimulated his interest in the biological origin of cholesterol and he began to concentrate on this field in 1941. In 1942 Bloch and David Rittenberg discovered that the two-carbon compound acetic acid was the major building block in the 30 or more steps in the biosynthesis (natural formation) of cholesterol, a waxlike alcohol found in animal cells. In his search to determine how acetic acid molecules combine in this process, Bloch was also joined by Feodor Lynen and his collaborators in Munich and Sir John Warcup Cornforth and George Popják in England. Their discovery facilitated medical research on the relation of blood cholesterol levels to atherosclerosis; research in physiology; and research on the chemistry of terpenes, rubber, and other isoprene derivatives. In 1946 Bloch joined the University of Chicago, becoming professor of biochemistry in 1952. During his years at Chicago Bloch investigated the enzymatic synthesis of the tripeptide glutathione. As a Guggenheim fellow he spent the year 1953 at the Organisch-Chemisches Institut, Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule, in Zurich with L. Ruzicka, V. Prelog, and their colleagues. In 1954 Bloch was appointed Higgins Professor of Biochemistry in the Department of Chemistry, Harvard University, and in 1968 he became chairman of the department. He continued research on various aspects of terpene and sterol biogenesis, going on as well to the enzymatic formation of unsaturated fatty acids and biochemical evolution. He became emeritus professor in 1982. Bloch shared the 1964 Nobel Prize in physiology and medicine with Feodor Lynen for discoveries concerning the synthesis of cholesterol by the body from acetic acid. He was a member of the American Chemical Society, U.S. National Academy of Sciences, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and American Society of Biological Chemists, among others. He was associated with the Committee on Growth of the American Cancer Society, the Biochemical Section of the U.S. Public Health Service, and the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Blindness. He served as an associate editor of the Journal of Biological Chemistry and published hundreds of papers. Apart from the topics mentioned, these dealt with creatinine, glutathione, amino acids generally, proteins, and several metabolic processes. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Chemical and Engineering News, 42 (Oct. 26, 1964), 34. (Samuel Aaron Miller / Ruth Rossing (2nd ed.)