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Notable and Anniversary Dates in Biochemistry for 1999

N. P. Voskresenskaya and E. N. Bylinskii, Compilers

Department of History of Medicine and Public Health, Semashko Institute of Social Hygiene, Economics, and Public Health Administration, Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, ul. Obukha 12, Moscow, 103064 Russia


200th anniversary of the discovery of fulminate of mercury--the mercury salt of fulminic acid (E. Howard, 1799).

150th anniversary of the preparation of the first crystalline protein (hemoglobin) (K. B. Reichert, Tartu, 1849).

150th anniversary of the isolation of choline (A. F. L. Strecker, 1849).

125th anniversary of the discovery of karyokinesis--the indirect division of plant cells (I. D. Chistyakov, 1874).

125th anniversary of the description of chromosomes--components of cellular nucleus (I. D. Chistyakov, O. Hertwig, E. Strasburger, 1874).

125th anniversary of the discovery of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) (F. Miescher, 1874).

125th anniversary of the preparation of heroin (Wright, 1874).

125th anniversary of the synthesis of DDT (O. Zeidler, 1874).

125th anniversary of La Chimie dans l'Espace (Chemistry in Space, J. Van't Hoff, 1874).

100th anniversary of the first determination of species specificity of serum proteins (F. Ya. Chistovich, 1899).

100th anniversary of the isolation of enterokinase from gastric juice (N. P. Shepoval'nikov, 1899).

100th anniversary of the discovery of salvarsan, the treatment for syphilis (1899).

100th anniversary of the first micromanipulator to study the live cell (M. McClendon and S. Schouten, 1899).

75th anniversary of the introduction in cytogenetics of the term “karyotype”, the morphological characteristic of the nucleus of an animal or plant cell at the stage of completely folded chromosomes (G. A. Levitskii, 1924).

75th anniversary of the description of the Feulgen reaction, the method of detecting DNA in cells and tissues (R. J. W. Feulgen and H. Rossenbeck, 1924).

75th anniversary of Conservation (Balsamation) and Mummification of Corpses (P. F. Minakov, 1924).

75th anniversary of Origin of Life (A. I. Oparin, 1924).

75th anniversary of Manual of Biological Chemistry (A. V. Palladin, 1924).

50th anniversary of the preparation of the antibiotic albomycin (G. F. Gauze et al., 1949-1950).

50th anniversary of the discovery of molecular principles of pathology of sickle cell anemia (L. C. Pauling and H. A. Itano, 1949).

50th anniversary of the description of neomycins--a series of antibiotics (S. A. Waksman and H. A. Lechevalier, 1949).

50th anniversary of Amino Acid Metabolism (A. E. Braunshtein, 1949).

50th anniversary of New Methods of Investigation of Protein Metabolism: an assembly lecture (B. I. Zbarskii and S. R. Mardashev, 1949).

50th anniversary of the All-Union Scientific Pharmaceutical Society (1949).

50th anniversary of the 1st International Congress on Biochemistry (Cambridge, 1949).

25th anniversary of the introduction of a method for nuclei transplantation into enucleated cells (J. B. Gurdon, 1974).

January - 50th anniversary of the death of Mikhail Petrovich Nikolaev (1893-1949), Russian pharmacologist. He developed methods of biological standardization for many hormone preparations. He demonstrated the peculiarities of the effects of many drugs in animals with experimentally induced pathologies. Bibliography and literature: see Great Medical Encyclopedia, Third Edition.

January 11 - 75th anniversary of the birth of Roger Guillemin (1924), American physiologist, French by origin, a member of the National Academy of Science of the USA (1974). He was awarded the 1977 Nobel Prize for discoveries concerning peptide hormone production in the brain (one half, jointly with A. Schally; the other half was awarded to R. Yalow for the development of radioimmunoassays of peptide hormones). Bibliography: The Hormones of the Hypothalamus (1972) Scientific American, November. Literature: Nobel Prize Laureates. Encyclopedia [Russian translation] (1992) Progress, Moscow, pp. 346-349; Nobel Laureates of 1977 (1978) Priroda, No. 1, 128-131.

January 12 - 100th anniversary of the birth of P. H. Muller (1899-1965), Swiss biochemist. He prepared a series of tannic substances. He carried out a search for insecticides. In 1939 he synthesized DDT. He was awarded the 1948 Nobel Prize “for the discovery of the high efficiency of DDT as a contact poison”. He was an honorary doctor of the University of Salonika (Greece) and an honorary member of the Swiss Society of Naturalists. Bibliography: see Great Soviet Encyclopedia, Third Edition; Nobel Prize Laureates. Encyclopedia [Russian translation] (1992), Progress, Moscow.

January 27 - 100th anniversary of the birth of Vasilii Nikolaevich Bukin (1899-1979, born in the village Znamenskoe, in the present Penza region), Russian biochemist, a specialist in biochemistry of vitamins. He made a contribution to the development of the domestic vitamin industry and implementation in practice of a whole series of important proposals on production of vitamin concentrates and preparations. His main works are devoted to biosynthesis of vitamins, their role in metabolism, and methods of their preparation. Bibliography and literature: see Great Soviet Encyclopedia, Third Edition; V. L. Kretovich (1984) V. N. Bukin, in Essays on the History of Biochemistry in the USSR, Nauka, Moscow.

January 27 - 75th anniversary of the birth of Vladimir Veniaminovich Frol'kis (1924, born in Zhitomir), Ukrainian physiologist and gerontologist. His studies are devoted to the physiology and experimental pathology of the cardiovascular system, investigation of basic mechanisms of aging, and age-specific pharmacology. He developed the adaptive-regulatory theory of aging. V. V. Frol'kis guided works on the synthesis of various new preparations and the development of a principally new experimental approach to the prolongation of life (inhibitors of protein biosynthesis, enterosorption). Bibliography: Circulation and Aging (with co-authors) (1984) Nauka, Leningrad; Longevity: Actual and Possible (1989) Naukova Dumka, Kiev; Aging and Prolongation of Life (1988) Nauka, Leningrad; Aging of the Brain (with co-authors) (1991) Nauka, Leningrad. Literature: Aging, Evolution, and Prolongation of Life (1992) Naukova Dumka, Kiev; V. V. Frol'kis (on the 60th anniversary) (1984) Fiziol. Zh., No. 1, 123.

January 29 - 50th anniversary of the death of Yakov Oskarovich Parnas (1884-1949, born in Mokryany village, Drogobych district of Lvov region), Russian biochemist. He made contributions to various research fields in biochemistry, mainly to the biochemistry of carbohydrates and nucleotides. He was the first to establish the relationship between individual steps in anaerobic metabolism of glucose and glycogen (the anaerobic degradation of carbohydrates in muscles has been called the Embden--Meyerhof--Parnas cycle). He found (in 1935 together with Polish scientist T. Baranovsky) the cleavage of glycogen under the influence of phosphoric acid, which he called phosphorolysis. He developed a micromethod to measure ammonia in biological tissues using an apparatus of his own design (Parnas apparatus). He was a pioneer in the application of the isotope method in biochemistry in our country. Bibliography and literature: see Great Medical Encyclopedia, Third Edition; Great Soviet Encyclopedia, Third Edition.

March 8 - 125th anniversary of the birth of J. Wohlgemuth (1874-?), German physician, pathologist, and clinician. The Wohlgemuth method of measuring alpha-amylase activity in blood and urine is a well-known procedure. A change in the enzyme activity is an important diagnostic sign of mumps, liver malfunctions, pancreatic necrosis, and nephritis. Bibliography and literature: see Great Medical Encyclopedia, Third Edition.

March 19 - 90th anniversary of the birth of J. L. Brachet (1909), Belgian biochemist and embryologist. He is known for his investigations on chemical embryology, histochemistry, and cytochemistry of nucleic acids. He developed the method of histochemical detection of ribonucleic acid with the enzyme ribonuclease (the Brachet method, 1940-1941). He was one of the first to point to the participation of ribonucleic and nucleic acids in protein biosynthesis (1942). Bibliography and literature: see Great Medical Encyclopedia, Third Edition.

March 25 - 75th anniversary of the birth of Irina Sergeevna Zavodskaya (1924, born in Karatak village, Tadjikistan), Russian pharmacologist. Her scientific works are devoted to the pharmacology of neurogenic dystrophies of visceral organs induced by an extremely strong stress. She found (together with her colleagues) a decrease in noradrenalin content associated with neurogenic disorders of visceral organs (registered as a discovery in 1971). Bibliography and literature: see Great Medical Encyclopedia, Third Edition; Pharmacological Analysis of Mechanism of Stress and Its Consequences (co-authored with E. V. Moreva) (1981) Meditsina, Leningrad.

March 29 - 125th anniversary of the birth of R. Ehrström (1874-1956), a well-known Finnish biochemist. He made contributions to studies on physiological chemistry, pharmacology, and dietology. Bibliography: Kompendium i Kvalitativ Analys (1896) Helsingfors; Laborationskurs i Medicinsk Kemi för Medicinestuderante (1917) Helsingfors; I Tarmkanalen Parasiterante Maskar Och Protosoer (1927) Copenhagen. Literature: Biography. Lexikon der Hervorrag. Ärzte der Letzten 50 Jahre (1932) Bd. 1, Berlin, Wien; Bonsdorff. B. R. Ehrström (1959-1960) Ärsbok. Soc. Scient. Fennica, Bd. 38, 2.

April 1 - 70th anniversary of the birth of Valentin Ivanovich Pokrovskii (1929, born in Ivanovo), Russian infectionist and epidemiologist, President of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences since 1987. His main scientific works are devoted to the problems of infection pathology (suppurative meningitis, mycoplasma pneumonia, generalized helminthiasis, and a series of other diseases). Bibliography: see Great Medical Encyclopedia, Third Edition; Legionnaire's Disease (Legionellosis) (with co-authors) (1984) Meditsina, Moscow; Pseudotuberculosis (with co-authors) (1990) Meditsina, Moscow; Contagious Diseases and the Fight Against Them in Developing Countries of Southwestern Asia (1993) Meditsina, Moscow; Bacterial Dysentery (with N. D. Yushchik) (1994) Meditsina, Moscow; Etiological Diagnosis and Etiotropic Therapy for Acute Pneumonias (1995) Meditsina, Moscow. Literature: see Great Medical Encyclopedia, Third Edition; V. I. Pokrovskii (1989) Klin. Med., No. 4, 16-18; (1989) Sov. Med., No. 4, 3-5; (1989) Ter. Arkhiv, No. 3, 150-151; (1989) ZhMEI, No. 4, 121.

April 7 - 125th anniversary of the birth of U. Sudzuki (1874-1943), Japanese chemist. His studies played an important role in development of biochemistry. In 1910 he prepared a vitamin of group B (oryzanin). He developed new methods for preparation of salicylic acid and salvarsan. Literature: Japanese Physiology. Past and Present (1965) Baltimore; Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 2nd Ed., Vol. 49, p. 619.

April 25 - 75th anniversary of the death of Nikolai Pavlovich Kravkov (1865-1924, born in Ryazan'), Russian pharmacologist, the founder of the experimental trend in Russian pharmacology. He was the first in the world to use isolated human organs to investigate the functional activities of vessels in normalcy and pathology. He suggested intravenous hedonal anesthesia. Bibliography: see Great Medical Encyclopedia, Third Edition.

May 1 - 100th anniversary of the birth of Evgenii Mikhailovich Kreps (1899-1985, born in St. Petersburg), Russian physiologist and biochemist. His studies were devoted to the respiratory function of blood, evolutionary biochemistry of blood enzymes and the central nervous system (CNS), and also to the metabolism in the CNS in onto- and phylogenesis under different functional conditions. He developed a method for early detection of sepsis that measures the activity of carbonic anhydrase in blood and suggested a method for noninvasive continuous observation of oxygen saturation in arterial blood (oxyhemometry). Bibliography: see Great Medical Encyclopedia, Third Edition; Great Soviet Encyclopedia, Third Edition; Kreps, E. M. (1989) About the Bygones and the Outlived, Nauka, Moscow; N. L. Verzhbinskaya and E. M. Kreps (1989) J. Evolut. Biochem. Physiol., No. 2, 145-150; E. M. Kreps (1899-1985) (1989) I. G. Bebikh, Compiler, Nauka, Moscow.

June 3 - 70th anniversary of the birth of W. Arber (1929), Swiss biologist and geneticist. In 1962 together with a colleague he found "the mechanism of restriction imposed by the host cell” and formulated the principle of strain-specific restriction and modification of DNA. He discovered the enzymes of restriction and modification--a new class of enzymes which specifically interact with DNA and whose action is directed against foreign DNA. He formulated basic principles of action of the restriction--methylation system. He was awarded the 1978 Nobel Prize jointly with D. Nathans and H. Smith for the discoveries of restriction enzymes and their application to problems of molecular genetics. Literature: (1979) Priroda, No. 1, 106-107; Nobel Prize Laureates. Encyclopedia [Russian translation] (1992) Progress, Moscow, pp. 32-34.

June 10 - 70th anniversary of the birth of Evgenii Ivanovich Chazov (1929, born in Gor'kii, presently Nizhnii Novgorod), Russian physician and cardiologist. His studies are devoted to the problems of clinical cardiology, physiology, and biochemistry of the cardiovascular system. He established the roles of damaged arterial walls and their spasm and disorders in blood coagulation and anticoagulation systems in development of thrombosis. Bibliography: see Great Soviet Encyclopedia, Third Edition, and Great Medical Encyclopedia, Third Edition; Dyslipoproteinemias and Coronary Arterial Disease (with co-authors) (1980) Meditsina, Moscow; Essays on Diagnosis (1988) Meditsina, Moscow; The Beginnings: From the History of Russian Medicine and Moscow University. M. Ya. Mudrov (first director of the School of Medicine) (1994) Meditsina, Moscow. Literature: see Great Soviet Encyclopedia, Third Edition, and Great Medical Encyclopedia, Third Edition; Academician E. I. Chazov (1989) Klin. Med., No. 6, 13-15; (1989) Ter. Arkhiv, No. 6, 154-157.

June 12 - 100th anniversary of the birth of F. A. Lipmann (1899-1986), American biochemist (German by origin). He published over 300 scientific papers. In 1939-1941 he suggested a concept about compounds with high-energy bonds (such as ATP) which are the carriers of free energy used in the cell for different purposes including the reactions of biosynthesis. In 1947-1950 together with colleagues he found that enzymatic reactions involving transacetylation are dependent on acetyl coenzyme A: he isolated this coenzyme and partially characterized it. He was awarded one half of the 1953 Nobel Prize for the discovery of coenzyme A and its importance for intermediatory metabolism (the other half was awarded to Sir H. A. Krebs for his discoveries of the citric acid cycle). Bibliography and literature: see Great Soviet Encyclopedia, Third Edition; Great Medical Encyclopedia, Third Edition; Nobel Prize Laureates. Encyclopedia [Russian translation] (1992) Progress, Moscow.

June 14 - 75th anniversary of the birth of Sir J. W. Black (1924), British pharmacologist, a member of the Royal Society. He made a considerable contribution to studies on blockers of gastric histamine receptors, which he called H2 receptors (in the 1970s). For discoveries of important principles for drug treatment he was awarded the 1988 Nobel Prize (jointly with G. Elion and G. Hitchings). Bibliography and literature: see Les Prix Nobel en 1988 (1989) Stockholm, pp. 233-260; Nobel Laureates of 1988 (1989) Priroda, No. 1, 104-106; International Who's Who (1990) New York.

July - 125th anniversary of the birth of Vladimir Sergeevich Sadikov (1874-1942, born in St. Petersburg), Russian biochemist, professor. His studies were mainly devoted to the chemistry of proteinaceous substances. Over a period of years together with N. D. Zelinskii he carried out studies on the processes of protein hydrolysis that resulted in the suggestion of the presence of cyclic peptides in protein molecules. He studies the effects of aging on chemical processes in the body. He discovered the enzyme collagenase. He made contributions to the development of balneochemistry (chemical investigations of sulfur-springs and their effects on the body), technical biochemistry, and the food processing industry. Bibliography: Chemistry of Life (1923-1928) Issues 1 and 2, Petrograd; Course in Biological Chemistry (1935) Leningrad; Laboratory Works on Proteins (1938) Leningrad. Literature: U. Z. Zubaidov (1980) Certain Problems of Studies on Proteins and the Works of V. S. Sadikov, in Historical-Biological Investigations, Nauka, Moscow, pp. 188-201; V. L. Kretovich (1984) V. S. Sadikov, in Essays on History of Biochemistry in USSR, Moscow, pp. 20-21.

August 16 - 150th anniversary of the birth of J. G. Ch. Kjeldahl (1849-1900), Danish chemist. He developed the method of quantity determination of nitrogen in organic compounds and various materials of animal and plant origin that is used to measure the content of protein and other nitrogen-containing compounds in body tissues and fluids (the Kjeldahl method, 1883). In clinical practice the method is largely used to measure residual nitrogen in blood that is an important diagnostic and prognostic sign. Bibliography and literature: see Great Soviet Encyclopedia, Third Edition; Great Medical Encyclopedia, Third Edition.

August 20 - 75th anniversary of the birth of Platon Grigor'evich Kostyuk (1924, born in Kiev), Ukrainian physiologist. His works are devoted to investigations of membrane processes of excitation and inhibition and cellular mechanisms of central nervous system functioning. He was one of the first in the USSR to use microelectrode techniques, and he developed an original method of intracellular dialysis of isolated neurons that allowed investigation of various properties of the interior surface of the plasma membrane and the effects of chemicals and pharmaceuticals exerted on it ab intra. He studied the nature of neuron excitation and the relationship of active ion transport with metabolism; he first clearly expanded transmembrane currents associated with generation of nervous impulse into the elements, studied the kinetics and ionic nature of these elements, and different types of neurons involved in spinal segment reflexes and synaptic organization of ascending and descending spinal systems. Together with J. Eccles he investigated the mechanism of generation and the functional significance of presynaptic inhibition. Bibliography: see Great Medical Encyclopedia, Third Edition; Physiology of Central Nervous System: Study Guide (1977) 2nd edition, Vishcha Shkola, Kiev; Mechanisms of Electric Excitability of Nervous Cells (co-authored with O. A. Kryshtal') (1981) Nauka, Moscow; Calcium and Cell Excitability (1986). Literature: see Great Soviet Encyclopedia, Third Edition; Academician P. G. Kostyuk (1984) Neurophysiology, No. 5, 726-728; P. G. Kostyuk (1986) L. A. Vikhreeva, Compiler, Naukova Dumka, Kiev.

September 7 - 200th anniversary of the death of J. Ingen-Housz (1730-1799), Dutch physician and naturalist. He was one of the first (1779) to discover the role of sunlight in the ability of green leaves to produce oxygen using carbon dioxide of the air (photosynthesis). Bibliography and literature: see Great Soviet Encyclopedia, Second Edition; Bibliographic Dictionary of Personalities in Natural Science and Technology (1958) Nauka, Moscow, p. 379.

September 9 - 100th anniversary of the birth of Alexander Nikolaevich Nesmeyanov (1899-1980, born in Moscow), Russian organic chemist. His scientific works are devoted to the chemistry of metallo-organic compounds. In 1929 he discovered the diazomethod of synthesis of metallo-organic compounds (Nesmeyanov reaction). He prepared ferrocerone, the first drug of the ferrocene series, to treat iron deficiency anemias. Bibliography and literature: see Great Soviet Encyclopedia, Third Edition; Great Medical Encyclopedia, Third Edition; Ferrocene and Related Compounds: Selected Works (1982) Nauka, Moscow.

September 10 - 70th anniversary of the birth of Robert Nikolaevich Glushkov (1929, born in Moscow), Russian organic chemist, a specialist in synthesis of therapeutics. His scientific works are mainly devoted to the search and development of methods of preparation of synthetic drugs and to studies on chemistry of mono- and polynuclear nitrogen-containing heterocyclic compounds. He created (together with assistants) the antidepressant inkazan and the antitumor preparation fopurin. He developed original methods for industrial synthesis of clonidine, piracetam, allopurinol, ketamine, gemfibrozil, pyrazidole, tetrindol and other drugs. Bibliography: Great Medical Encyclopedia, Third Edition; Synthetic Drugs (co-authored with L. N. Yakhontov) (1983) Meditsina, Moscow.

September 26 - 150th anniversary of the birth of Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (1849-1936, born in Ryazan'), Russian physiologist. He is the Nobel Laureate (1904) for studies on the physiology of digestion processes. He is the author of classic works on physiology of circulation and digestion. He founded the doctrine of higher nervous activity and new approaches and methods in physiological studies. He introduced in practice the chronic experiment allowing the investigation of functions in a practically healthy body. Using his method of acquired reflexes he established that objective physiological processes occurring in the brain cortex underlie psychic activity. The studies of I. P. Pavlov on the physiology of higher nervous activity played a critical role in the development of physiology, medicine, psychology, and pedagogics. He founded a large physiological school. Bibliography and literature: see Great Medical Encyclopedia, Third Edition; Great Soviet Encyclopedia, Third Edition; Soviet Encyclopedic Dictionary, Third Edition (1985) Moscow, p. 952.

October 15 - 25th anniversary of the death of I. Rusznyak (1889-1974), Hungarian physician, pathophysiologist, and biochemist. He suggested the micromethod to determine chlorides and the methods of measuring sodium and urea in blood (1921). He developed the nephelometric method of determination of protein fractions in blood serum (1923). He found that a portion of the blood sugar is protein-bound and exist as glycoproteins. He discovered vitamin P-citrin, together with A. Szent-Györgyi (1936). Bibliography and literature: see Great Medical Encyclopedia, Third Edition; Great Soviet Encyclopedia, Third Edition.

December 4 - 90th anniversary of the birth of Solomon Abramovich Neyfakh (1909-1992, born in Vitebsk), Russian biochemist-geneticist. He fought in the Second World War. His main works were devoted to the problems of enzymatic and membrane mechanisms regulating energy metabolism in cells, molecular organization of the mitochondrial genome, structure and properties of mRNA and the protein-synthesizing system of mitochondria, molecular mechanisms and genetic heterogeneity of hereditary disorders in humans, and the search for pathways to radical gene therapy. He elicited the molecular principles of the disorder in glycolysis control in cancer cells. He discovered mitochondrial protein kinasin, the regulator of glycolysis. Bibliography and literature: see Great Medical Encyclopedia, Third Edition; N. K. Monakhov et al. (1979) S. A. Neyfakh, Tsitologiya, No. 11, 1374-1376; (1980) S. A. Neyfakh, Genetika, No. 5, 924-926.

125th anniversary of the birth of R. Krimberg (1874-1941), Latvian biochemist, a student of Academician Gulevich. He discovered carnitine (vitamin BT) (jointly with others). Literature: R. Krimberg, in Science in East-Country in 18th-Early 20th Centuries (1962) Riga, p. 112.

125th anniversary of the birth of W. Straub (1874-1944), German pharmacologist. He performed basic studies on the effects of digitalis on the heart. He developed techniques of using isolated frog heart in experiments. He was the author of the concept of potential action of drugs, having shown that pharmacological effects of many of them (atropine, muscarine, adrenalin) develop with changes in the concentrations of the substances in tissues and the environment, i.e., with the intake and the output of the substances. He established the steroid structure of heart glycosides. Bibliography and literature: see Great Medical Encyclopedia, Third Edition.

125th anniversary of the birth of G. Embden (1874-1933), German biochemist. He made his contribution to the chemistry of muscle contraction: he isolated hexose monophosphoric and adenosine phosphoric (adenylic) acids and established the role of lactic acid and phosphorus in muscle contraction. In 1933 he suggested a new scheme for anaerobic enzymatic cleavage of carbohydrates according to which the pathway to the final products goes via tricarbonic phosphorylated products--phosphotrioses and phosphoglyceric and pyruvic acids. The suggested scheme was very important for the development of current concepts on the pathways of carbohydrate breakdown in glycolysis and fermentation. Bibliography and literature: see Great Medical Encyclopedia, Third Edition.

60th anniversary of the birth of S. Altman (1939), American biochemist. In the mid 1970s an extraordinary enzyme of E. coli was found in his laboratory, ribonuclease P that specifically removes a polynucleotide fragment from the 5'-region of the tRNA precursor. Along with the protein molecule, RNase P contained one RNA molecule of 377 nucleotides. Later, a new ribozyme was found that possessed all the classic properties which up to that time were believed to belong only to enzyme proteins. For the discovery of the catalytic properties of RNA he was awarded the 1989 Nobel Prize in chemistry (jointly with T. R. Cech). Literature: see (1990) Priroda, No. 1, 94-96.

50th anniversary of the death of L. Michaelis (1875-1949), German biochemist. He first described azurophilic cell granules. He found the quantitative laws for enzymatic processes. He established (in 1913 together with M. L. Menten) the theory of formation and degradation of enzyme--substrate complexes. Michaelis and Menten calculated the constant (the Michaelis constant), the numerical expression of which equals the substrate concentration (mole/liter) at which the rate of reaction is half the maximum, i.e., the constant that characterizes the dependence of the rate of enzymatic processes on substrate concentration. He developed the theory of redox processes. He first pointed out the involvement of semiquinones in redox reactions of organic compounds, developed the theory of isoelectric state of ampholytes, and suggested methods for measuring the isoelectric points of proteins and the supravital staining of mitochondria with janus green. Bibliography and literature: see Great Medical Encyclopedia, Third Edition; Great Soviet Encyclopedia, Third Edition.