View source for Severo Ochoa

{{Short description|Spanish biochemist and Nobel laureate (1905–1993)}}
{{family name hatnote|Ochoa|de Albornoz|lang=Spanish}}
{{Lead too short|date=April 2022}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2022}}
{{Infobox scientist
| image             = Severo Ochoa 1958b.jpg
| caption           = Severo Ochoa in 1958
| name              = Severo Ochoa
| honorific_suffix  = [[ForMemRS]]
| birth_name        = Severo Ochoa de Albornoz
| birth_date        = {{Birth date|1905|9|24|df=y}}
| birth_place       = [[Luarca]], [[Asturias]], Spain
| death_date        = {{death date and age|1993|11|1|1905|9|24|df=y}}
| death_place       = [[Madrid]], Spain
| citizenship       = [[Spain|Spanish]] (1905–1956), [[Americans|American]] (1956–1993)<br />
| field             = [[Biochemistry]], [[molecular biology]]
| education =  [[Complutense University of Madrid|University of Madrid]] Medical School, [[University of Glasgow]]
| academic_advisors = [[Pedro Arrupe]], [[Juan Negrín]], [[Otto Meyerhof]], [[Henry Hallett Dale]]
| workplaces        = [[Kaiser Wilhelm Society|Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Biology]], Berlin; [[National Institute for Medical Research]], London; [[New York University Grossman School of Medicine]]; [[Washington University School of Medicine]]
| known_for         = Discovery of mechanisms in the biological synthesis of RNA and DNA
| spouse            = Carmen Garcia Cobian<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/1959/ochoa/biographical/|title=The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1959|website=NobelPrize.org|access-date=15 March 2023|archive-date=15 March 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230315133632/https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/1959/ochoa/biographical/|url-status=live}}</ref>
| awards            = {{Plainlist|
* [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine|Nobel Prize]] (1959)
* [[Paul Karrer Gold Medal]] (1963)
* [[National Medal of Science]] (1979)}}
}}

'''Severo Ochoa de Albornoz''' ({{IPA|es|seˈβeɾo oˈtʃoa ðe alβoɾˈnoθ|lang}}; 24 September 1905 – 1 November 1993) was a Spanish [[physician]] and [[biochemist]], and winner of the 1959 [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine]] together with [[Arthur Kornberg]] for their discovery of "the mechanisms in the [[biological synthesis]] of [[deoxyribonucleic acid]] (DNA)".<ref name=korn>{{cite journal | last1 = cornberg | first1 = Arthur | year = 1997 | title = Severo Ochoa (24 September 1905–1 November 1993) | journal = Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society | volume = 141 | issue = 4 | pages = 479–491 |jstor=987224}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal 
| last1 = Kornberg 
| first1 = Arthur 
| title = Remembering our teachers 
| journal = The Journal of Biological Chemistry 
| volume = 276 
| issue = 1 
| pages = 3–11 
| year = 2001 
| doi = 10.1016/S0021-9258(18)44198-1 
| pmid = 11134064 
| doi-access = free 
}}</ref><ref name=hobby>{{Cite journal | last1 = Ochoa | first1 = S. | doi = 10.1146/annurev.bi.49.070180.000245 | title = A Pursuit of a Hobby | journal = Annual Review of Biochemistry | volume = 49 | pages = 1–30 | year = 1980 | pmid = 6773467 | doi-access = free }}</ref><ref name=ochoabio>{{Nobelprize}}</ref>

==Education and early life ==
Ochoa was born in [[Luarca]] ([[Asturias]]), [[Spain]]. His father was Severo Manuel Ochoa (who he was named after), a lawyer and businessman, and his mother was Carmen de Albornoz. Ochoa was the nephew of [[Álvaro de Albornoz]] (President of the Second Spanish Republic in exile and former Foreign Minister), and a cousin of the poet and critic [[Aurora de Albornoz]]. His father died when Ochoa was seven, and he and his mother moved to [[Málaga]], where he attended elementary school through high school.  His interest in biology was stimulated by the publications of the Spanish neurologist and Nobel laureate [[Santiago Ramón y Cajal]]. In 1923, he went to the [[Complutense University of Madrid|University of Madrid]] Medical School, where he hoped to work with Ramón y Cajal, but Ramón y Cajal retired. He studied with father [[Pedro Arrupe]], and [[Juan Negrín]] was his teacher:<ref name=hobby/>

{{blockquote|''Negrin opened wide, fascinating vistas to my imagination, not only through his lectures and laboratory teaching, but through his advice, encouragement, and stimulation to read scientific monographs and textbooks in languages other than Spanish''.<ref name=hobby/>}}

Negrín encouraged Ochoa and another student, José Valdecasas, to isolate [[creatinine]] from urine.<ref name=hobby /> The two students succeeded and also developed a method to measure small levels of muscle creatinine. Ochoa spent the summer of 1927 at [[University of Glasgow]] working with [[Diarmid Noel Paton|D. Noel Paton]] on [[creatine]] metabolism and improving his English skills. He also refined the assay procedure further and upon returning to Spain he and Valdecasas submitted a paper describing the work to the ''[[Journal of Biological Chemistry]]'', where it was rapidly accepted,<ref>{{cite journal|author1=Ochoa, S.|author2=Valdecasas, J. G. |year=1929|url=https://www.jbc.org/content/81/2/351.full.pdf+html|title= A micromethod for the estimation of total creatinine in muscle|journal=J. Biol. Chem.|volume= 81|issue=2 |pages= 351–357|doi=10.1016/S0021-9258(18)83817-0 |doi-access=free}}</ref> marking the beginning of Ochoa's biochemistry career.<ref name="frs">{{Cite journal | last1 = Grunberg-Manago | first1 = Marianne | author-link = Marianne Grunberg-Manago| doi = 10.1098/rsbm.1997.0020 | title = Severo Ochoa. 24 September 1905–1 November 1993: Elected For.Mem.R.S. 1965 | journal = [[Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society]] | volume = 43 | pages = 351–365| year = 1997 | doi-access = free }}</ref>

Ochoa completed his undergraduate medical degree in the summer of 1929 and decide to go abroad again to gain further research experience. His creatine and creatinine work led to an invitation to join [[Otto Meyerhof]]'s laboratory at the [[Kaiser Wilhelm Society|Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Biology]] in Berlin-Dahlem in 1929. At that time the institute was a "hot bed" of the rapidly evolving discipline of biochemistry, and thus Ochoa had the experience of meeting and interacting with scientists such as [[Otto Heinrich Warburg]], [[Carl Neuberg]], [[Einar Lundsgaard]], and [[Fritz Lipmann]] in addition to Meyerhof who had received the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine less than a decade earlier.

[[File:Severo Ochoa with wife 1959.jpg|thumb|left|200px|Ochoa with wife Carmen García Cobián, in Sweden, 1959]]
In 1930 Ochoa returned to Madrid to complete research for his MD thesis, which he defended that year. In 1931, a newly minted MD, he married Carmen García Cobián. They did not have any children. He then began postdoctoral study at the [[National Institute for Medical Research]] in London, where he worked with [[Henry Hallett Dale]]. His London research involved the enzyme [[Glyoxalase system|glyoxalase]] and was an important departure in Ochoa's career in two respects. First, the work marked the beginning of Ochoa's lifelong interest in enzymes. Second, the project was at the cutting edge of the rapidly evolving study of [[Metabolism|intermediary metabolism]].<ref name=hobby/>

==Career and research==
In 1933 the Ochoas returned to Madrid where he began to study glycolysis in heart muscle. Within two years, he was offered the directorship of the Physiology Section in a newly created Institute for Medical Research at the [[Complutense University of Madrid|University of Madrid Medical School]]. Unfortunately the appointment was made just as the [[Spanish Civil War]] erupted. Ochoa decided that trying to perform research in such an environment would destroy forever his "chances of becoming a scientist." Thus, "after much thought, my wife and I decided to leave Spain." In September 1936 they began what he later called the "wander years" as they traveled from Spain to Germany, to England, and ultimately to the United States within a span of four years.<ref name=hobby/><ref>Singleton, R. Jr. (2007). "Ochoa, Severo." In ''New Dictionary of Scientific Biography'', Noretta Koertge (ed.), vol. 5, pp. 305–12. Detroit: Charles Scribner's Sons.:]</ref>

Ochoa left Spain and returned to Meyerhof's Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Biology now relocated in Heidelberg, where Ochoa found a profoundly changed research focus. During his 1930 visit the laboratory work was "classical physiology," which Ochoa described as "one could see muscles twitching everywhere".<ref name=hobby/> By 1936 Meyerhof's laboratory had become one of the world's foremost biochemical facilities focused on processes such as [[glycolysis]] and [[fermentation]]. Rather than studying muscles "twitch," the lab was now purifying and characterizing the enzymes involved in muscle action and those involved in yeast fermentation.
[[File:Severo Ochoa - Universidad Complutense de Madrid.jpg|thumb|right|Severo Ochoa Monument outside the school of medicine of the [[Complutense University of Madrid]]]]
From then until 1938, he held many positions and worked with many people at many places. For example, [[Otto Meyerhof]] appointed him Guest Research Assistant at the [[Max Planck Institute for Medical Research|Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Medical Research]] in [[Heidelberg]] for one year. From 1938 until 1941 he was Demonstrator and Nuffield Research Assistant at the [[University of Oxford]].

=== United States ===
Ochoa then went to the United States, where he again held many positions at several universities. Between 1940 and 1942, Ochoa worked for [[Washington University School of Medicine|Washington University's School of Medicine]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Severo Ochoa |url=http://www.nasonline.org/member-directory/deceased-members/52015.html |access-date=2022-11-23 |website=www.nasonline.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Severo Ochoa |url=https://www.amacad.org/person/severo-ochoa |access-date=2022-11-23 |website=American Academy of Arts & Sciences |language=en |archive-date=23 November 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221123153150/https://www.amacad.org/person/severo-ochoa |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1942 he was appointed research associate in medicine at the [[New York University School of Medicine]] and there subsequently became assistant professor of biochemistry (1945), professor of pharmacology (1946), professor of biochemistry (1954), and chair of the department of biochemistry.

In 1956, he became an American citizen.<ref name=ochoabio/> He was elected to both the United States [[National Academy of Sciences]] and the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]] in 1957. In 1959, Ochoa and [[Arthur Kornberg]] were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine "for their discovery of the mechanisms in the biological [[Chemical synthesis|synthesis]] of [[RNA|ribonucleic acid]] and [[DNA|deoxyribonucleic acid]]". He was elected to the [[American Philosophical Society]] in 1961.<ref>{{Cite web |title=APS Member History |url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Severo+Ochoa&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced |access-date=2022-11-23 |website=search.amphilsoc.org |archive-date=23 November 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221123153156/https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Severo+Ochoa&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced |url-status=live }}</ref>

Ochoa continued research on [[protein synthesis]] and replication of [[RNA virus]]es until 1985, when he returned to now democratic Spain where he was a science advisor. Ochoa was also a recipient of U.S. [[National Medal of Science]] in 1978.

Severo Ochoa died in [[Madrid]], [[Spain]] on 1 November 1993. Carmen García Cobián had died in 1986.

Long after his death, Spanish actress [[Sara Montiel]] claimed that she and Severo Ochoa were involved in a romantic relationship in the 1950s, as stated in an interview in Spanish newspaper ''[[El País]]'': "The great love of my life was Severo Ochoa. But it was an impossible love. Clandestine. He was married, and besides, him doing research and me doing films wasn't a good match."
<ref>{{cite news |title=En 54 años no ha salido nadie como yo |author=NÚÑEZ JAIME, VÍCTOR |work=El Pais |date=13 October 2012 |url=http://elpais.com/elpais/2012/10/12/gente/1350057827_636150.html |access-date=13 October 2012 |archive-date=23 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121023181833/http://elpais.com/elpais/2012/10/12/gente/1350057827_636150.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Legacy===

A research center that was planned in the 1970s was opened in 1975 (CBM) in the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM). After his death, it was named the Centro de Biología Molecular Severo Ochoa.<ref>{{cite web |title=Centro de Biologia Molecular Severo Ochoa |url=http://www.cbm.uam.es/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070622053826/http://www.cbm.uam.es/ |archive-date=22 June 2007 |access-date=2023-08-09}}</ref>

In [[Leganés]], Madrid, a hospital bears his name, as does the [[Madrid Metro]] station serving it, [[Hospital Severo Ochoa (Madrid Metro)|Hospital Severo Ochoa]].

The [[asteroid]] [[117435 Severochoa]] is also named in his honor.

In 2003, the Spanish General Post Office ([[Correos]]) issued a €0,76 postage stamp honoring Ochoa, as one of a pair featuring Spanish medical Nobel Prize winners<ref>{{cite web| title =Nobel Prize Philately| author =Correos| url =https://aplicaciones.correos.es/ss/Satellite/site/emision-1363200855921-albumes_publicaciones_filatelia/detalle_album-sidioma=en_GB| access-date =1 August 2022| archive-date =16 November 2023| archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20231116203529/https://aplicaciones.correos.es/ss/Satellite/site/emision-1363200855921-albumes_publicaciones_filatelia/detalle_album-sidioma=en_GB| url-status =live}}</ref> alongside [[Santiago Ramón y Cajal]].   

In June 2011, the United States Postal Service issued a stamp honoring him,<ref>{{cite news| title =American Scientists| author =United States Postal| url =http://beyondtheperf.com/stamp-releases/american-scientists|url-status = dead| archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20110404151728/http://www.beyondtheperf.com/stamp-releases/american-scientists| archive-date =4 April 2011}}</ref> as part of the ''American Scientists'' collection, along with [[Melvin Calvin]], [[Asa Gray]], and [[Maria Goeppert-Mayer]]. This was the third volume in the series.

The main road in to the tourist resort Benidorm is named Avenida Dr. Severo Ochoa<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Av.+Dr.+Severo+Ochoa,+03503,+Alicante,+Spain/@38.5473168,-0.1012497,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0xd62046ec56b6b99:0x3eed4e2acb7c1794!8m2!3d38.5473126!4d-0.0990557 | title=Av. Dr. Severo Ochoa · 03503, Alicante, Spain | access-date=23 December 2022 | archive-date=23 December 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221223213229/https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Av.+Dr.+Severo+Ochoa,+03503,+Alicante,+Spain/@38.5473168,-0.1012497,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0xd62046ec56b6b99:0x3eed4e2acb7c1794!8m2!3d38.5473126!4d-0.0990557 | url-status=live }}</ref> in his honor.

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Severo Ochoa}}
* {{Nobelprize}}

{{Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Laureates 1951-1975}}
{{1959 Nobel Prize winners}}
{{Winners of the National Medal of Science|biological}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ochoa, Severo}}
[[Category:1905 births]]
[[Category:1993 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Valdés, Asturias]]
[[Category:Spanish biochemists]]
[[Category:20th-century American biochemists]]
[[Category:American Nobel laureates]]
[[Category:History of genetics]]
[[Category:Nobel laureates in Physiology or Medicine]]
[[Category:20th-century Spanish physicians]]
[[Category:National Medal of Science laureates]]
[[Category:Spanish Nobel laureates]]
[[Category:American people of Asturian descent]]
[[Category:Spanish emigrants to the United States]]
[[Category:Foreign members of the Royal Society]]
[[Category:Foreign members of the USSR Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:Foreign members of the Russian Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:Academic staff of Heidelberg University]]
[[Category:Complutense University of Madrid alumni]]
[[Category:Members of the German Academy of Sciences at Berlin]]
[[Category:Hispanic and Latino American scientists]]
[[Category:Presidents of the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology]]
[[Category:Washington University School of Medicine faculty]]
[[Category:20th-century American physicians]]
[[Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society]]
[[Category:New York University Grossman School of Medicine faculty]]