Albert Szent-Györgyi
Facts
Photo from the Nobel Foundation archive.
Albert von Szent-Györgyi Nagyrápolt
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1937
Born: 16 September 1893, Budapest, Austria-Hungary (now Hungary)
Died: 22 October 1986, Woods Hole, MA, USA
Affiliation at the time of the award: Szeged University, Szeged, Hungary
Prize motivation: “for his discoveries in connection with the biological combustion processes, with special reference to vitamin C and the catalysis of fumaric acid”
Prize share: 1/1
Work
In our cells nutrients are broken down so that energy is released for the construction of cells. At the beginning of the 1930s, Albert Szent-Györgyi studied these metabolic processes and showed how their sequences are affected by catalysts—substances that facilitate reactions without being incorporated in the final products. Growth hormones, including fumaric acid, play a key role in transporting fluids as part of oxidation reactions in metabolism. Szent-Györgyi also pointed to the role of vitamin C, the substance he identified, in the processes.
Nobel Prizes and laureates
Six prizes were awarded for achievements that have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind. The 12 laureates' work and discoveries range from proteins' structures and machine learning to fighting for a world free of nuclear weapons.
See them all presented here.
