Vincent du Vigneaud

Vincent du Vigneaud (May 18, 1901 – December 11, 1978) 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,"<ref name = 1955Nobel>Template:Cite web</ref> a reference to his work on the peptide hormone oxytocin.

Biography

Vincent du Vigneaud was born in Chicago in 1901. Of French descent, he was the son of inventor and mechanic Alfred du Vigneaud and Mary Theresa.<ref name=":0" /> He studied at the Schurz High School and completed secondary education in 1918. His interest in sulfur began when he entered high school and his new friends invited him to run chemical experiments on explosives using sulfur. During World War I, senior students were made to work on farms, and du Vigneaud worked near Caledonia, Illinois.<ref name=":1">Template:Cite journal</ref> There he became an expert in milking cows, which inspired him to become a farmer. However, his elder sister, Beatrice, persuaded him to take up chemistry at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, after which he enrolled in the chemical engineering course. He later recalled: Template:BlockquoteHis interest was aroused by lectures of Carl Shipp Marvel<ref name=":0" /> and Howard B. Lewis, whom he remembered as being 'extremely enthusiastic about sulfur."<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> With little support from the family, he found odd jobs to support himself.<ref name=":1" /> After receiving his MS in 1924 he joined DuPont.<ref name=":0" />

He married Zella Zon Ford, whom he met on June 12, 1924, while working as a waiter during his university course. During the fall of 1924, Marvel found him a job as an assistant biochemist at the Philadelphia General Hospital that helped him to teach clinical chemistry at the Graduate School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania. Marvel would pay for the trip to Pennsylvania in exchange for du Vigneaud's preparation of 10 pounds of cupferron.<ref name=":1" /> Resuming his academic career in 1925, du Vigneaud joined the group of John R. Murlin at the University of Rochester for his PhD thesis. He graduated in 1927 with his work The Sulfur of Insulin.<ref name=":0" />

After a post-doctoral position with John Jacob Abel at Johns Hopkins University Medical School (1927–1928), he traveled to Europe as a National Research Council Fellow in 1928–1929, where he worked with Max Bergmann and Leonidas Zervas at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Leather Research in Dresden, and with George Barger at the University of Edinburgh Medical School. He then returned to the University of Illinois as a professor.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite web</ref>

In 1932, he started working at the George Washington University Medical School in Washington, D.C., and in 1938, he attended the Cornell Medical College in New York City, where he stayed until his emeritation in 1967. Following retirement, he held a position at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.<ref name=":0" />

In 1974, du Vigneaud had a stroke which forced his retirement. He died in 1978, one year after his wife's death in 1977.<ref name=":0" />

Scientific contributions

Du Vigneaud's career was characterized by an interest in sulfur-containing peptides, proteins, and especially peptide hormones. Even before his Nobel-Prize-winning work<ref name = 1955Nobel /> on elucidating and synthesizing oxytocin<ref name="oxytocinTS">Template:Cite journal</ref> and vasopressin via manipulating the AVP gene, he had established a reputation from his research on insulin, biotin, transmethylation, and penicillin.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

He also carried out a series of structure-activity relationships for oxytocin and vasopressin, perhaps the first of their type for peptides. That work culminated in the publication of a book entitled A Trail of Research in Sulphur Chemistry and Metabolism and Related Fields.

Honours

Du Vigneaud joined Alpha Chi Sigma while at the University of Illinois in 1930. He was elected to the United States National Academy of Sciences and the American Philosophical Society in 1944, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1948.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He received the 1955 Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his work on biochemically important sulphur compounds, especially for the first synthesis of a polypeptide hormone,"<ref name="1955Nobel" /> a reference to his work on the peptide hormone oxytocin.<ref name="oxytocinTS" />

See also

• University of Rochester
• List of Nobel Laureates affiliated with the University of Rochester

External links

• Template:Nobelprize including the Nobel Lecture, December 12, 1955 A Trail of Sulfa Research: From Insulin to Oxytocin
• https://weill.cornell.edu/archives/pdf/personal_aids/DuVigneaud.pdf