Jens christian skou biography of barack

At this time, with a history of only 19 years, Aarhus University was a very young institution and the research environment was correspondingly limited. These four researchers jointly lectured the approximately medical students who were enrolled each year. This was a hub for neurophysiology because of the easy access to squid and thereby experiments with enormous nerves that could not be comparably studied in other animals.

He suddenly found himself in an international research environment occupied by personalities whose names he otherwise only knew from textbooks and journals. At home in Aarhus, however, the newly graduated doctor did not have access to nerves from squid, and he therefore decided to use nerves from crabs instead. Crab nerves have the same properties as squid nerves because they also contain a protein substance with a high level of enzymatic activity.

Unfortunately, however, they are not the same size — so a considerable number of crabs had to be used. Skou made an agreement with a fisherman from Norsminde and, in the following years, a distinct odour permeated the Department of Physiology in Aarhus, where approximately 20—25 crabs had to be boiled so the fresh, threadlike nerve fibres could be studied.

Skou did not initially use the term 'pump' about the enzyme, but in he published his research in the Biochimica et Biophysica Acta journal under the heading The influence of some cations on an adenosine triphosphatase from peripheral nerves. This was the article that 40 years later earned him the Nobel Prize.

Jens christian skou biography of barack: Jens Christian Skou awarded

His identification of the sodium-potassium pump attracted attention to the department, and on an international scale, Aarhus University became one of the centres of expertise in transport across the cell membrane during the s — a position the university still holds today. Skou himself continued to carry out research into the structure and function of the active transport system in the cells and established numerous international connections.

Skou retired inbut when he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry inhe still spent his days at his office at the university and still spent a lot of time researching. He has been awarded the Eric K. The information on this page is based on content at Nobelprize. Photo courtesy of Aarhus Universitet. Nobel Prize in Chemistry P. Boyer, J.

Walker and J. Skou for elucidation of the enzymatic mechanism underlying the synthesis of adenosine triphosphate ATP and discovery of an ion-transporting enzyme Jens C. Full list of Nobel winners in crystallography P. Agre C. Anfinsen D. Baker C. Barkla P. Boyer W. Bragg W. Bragg B. Brockhouse Prince L. Charpak A. Compton F. Crick R. Curl Jr C.

Davisson P. Debye J. Deisenhofer J. Doudna A. Geim P. Feringa H. He retired from the Aarhus University inbut kept offices at the Department of Physiology today part of the Department of Biomedicine. Boyer and John E. Skou had taken a few years away from his clinical training in the early s to study the action of local anaesthetics.

This, he argued, would affect the movement of sodium ions and make nerve cells inexcitable, thus causing anaesthesia. Skou thought that other types of membrane protein might also be affected by local anaesthetics dissolving in the lipid part of the membrane. He therefore had the idea of looking at an enzyme which was embedded in the membrane and finding out if its properties were affected by local anaesthetics.

He looked at ATPase in crab nerves. The enzyme was there, but its activity was very variable and he needed a highly active enzyme for his studies. Eventually he managed to discover that ATPase was most active when exposed to the right combination of sodium, potassium and magnesium ions. Only then did he realise that this enzyme might have something to do with the active movement of sodium and potassium across the plasma membrane.

This idea had been postulated many years before, however, the mechanism was quite unknown.

Jens christian skou biography of barack: Skou was born on

Skou published his findings. Indeed, he seems to have realised the importance of his discovery only gradually, and he continued his studies on local anaesthetics. In Skou went to a conference in Vienna to describe his work on cholinesterase. There he met Robert Post born [ 4 ]who had been studying the pumping of sodium and potassium in red blood cells.

Post had recently discovered that three sodium ions were pumped out of the cell for every two potassium ions pumped in, and in his research he had made use of a substance called ouabain or g-strophanthin which had recently been shown to inhibit the pump [ 5 ].

Jens christian skou biography of barack: Jens Christian Skou passed

Post asked whether the enzyme was inhibited by ouabain. At this stage Skou was unaware that ouabain inhibited the pump, but he immediately telephoned his lab and arranged for the experiment to be done. Ouabain did indeed inhibit the enzyme, thus establishing a link between the enzyme and the sodium-potassium pump. Following the Nobel Prize, Skou gave several interviews recounting the story of his discoveries, and at age 94 was reported to still keep up with publications in his field.

Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikimedia Commons Wikidata item. Danish chemist — LemvigDenmark. RisskovAarhusDenmark. Early life [ edit ]. Career [ edit ]. References [ edit ]. Retrieved 29 May Biochimica et Biophysica Acta. PMID S2CID Journal of Biological Chemistry.

Retrieved 29 May — via www. Retrieved 3 August Clausen, Torben August Boldyrev, A. Skou, J. August The identification of the sodium pump".