Earl Reece Stadtman

Earl Reece Stadtman NAS (November 15, 1919 – January 7, 2008)[2] was an American biochemist,[1][3] notable for his research on enzymes[4] and anaerobic bacteria.

Earl Stadtman
Earl Reece and Thressa Stadtman, 2004
Born
Earl Reece Stadtman

(1919-11-15)November 15, 1919
Carrizozo, New Mexico, USA
DiedJanuary 7, 2008(2008-01-07) (aged 88)
Derwood, Maryland, USA[1]
EducationUniversity of California, Berkeley (Ph.D. 1949)
Known forFatty aid biosynthesis, glutamine dehydrogenase, cycles of interconvertible enzymes
SpouseThressa Campbell Stadtman
ChildrenNone
AwardsPfizer Award in Enzyme Chemistry, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, National Academy of Sciences, National Medal of Science, many others
Scientific career
FieldsBiochemistry
InstitutionsGeorgetown University, Washington, DC; University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland; Johns Hopkins University; National Heart Institute, Bethesda, Maryland; many visiting appointments
ThesisMechanisms of Fatty Acid Synthesis by Clostridium kluyveri
Academic advisorsHorace Barker

Career

Stadtman started his career as a research assistant in the Division of Plant Nutrition of the University of California. Subsequently he was an Atomic Energy Commission Fellow with Fritz Lipmann in the Massachusetts General Hospital, but after 1960 he worked at the National Heart Institute, where he became chief of the Laboratory of Biochemistry. In addition, he spent sabbatical periods at the Max Planck Institute in Munich and the Pasteur Institute in Paris.[3]

Personal life

In 1944 Earl Stadtman married Thressa Campbell, also a distinguished scientist, the discoverer of selenocysteine. They had no children during their marriage of more than sixty years.[5]

Research
Earl Stadtman with P. Boon Chock

Stadtman's research covered a wide field. Early in his career he worked with Horace Barker on bacterial fatty-acid synthesis, with a series of four papers.[6] In the same period he collaborated with Fritz Lipmann on the function of coenzyme A.[7] Later his work took on a more enzymological character, with investigation of, for example, aldehyde dehydrogenase,[8] aspartate kinase,[9] work carried out during a period in the laboratory of Georges Cohen in France and, most notably, glutamine synthetase,[10] an enzyme that will always be associated with his name.

From the 1970s onwards Stadtman published many papers with P. Boon Chock on the capacity of cycles of interconvertible enzymes, based especially on his results with glutamine synthetase, to generate very high sensitivity to effectors.[11]

Editorial work

Stadtman was active as an editor of numerous prominent journals, including the Journal of Biological Chemistry, 1960–1965, Archives of Biochemistry and Biophysics, 1960–1969; Annual Review of Biochemistry, 1972–2000; Biochemistry, 1969–1976; Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 1974–1981; Trends in Biochemical Sciences, 1975–1978.

He was (with Bernard Horecker) founding editor of Current Topics in Cellular Regulation, a major series in the subject, and continued in the role up to volume 23 (1984).

Awards and honours

References
  1. Washington Post: Earl R. Stadtman, 88; Revered Biochemist, Mentor at NIH; By Yvonne Shinhoster Lamb; Sunday, January 13, 2008
  2. Curriculum Vitae on history.nih.gov
  3. The Stadtman Way: A Tale of two biochemists at NIH
  4. New York Times: Oxygen-Free Chamber Is Built To Spur Studies of Living Cells; By HAROLD M. SCHMECK Jr.; April 06, 1967
  5. "Intramural bliss? Reflections on mixing science with marriage". 1995.
  6. Stadtman, E. R.; Barker, H. A. (1949). "Fatty acid synthesis by enzyme preparations of Clostridium kluyveri". J. Biol. Chem. 180 (3): 1085–1093, 1095–1115, 1117–1124, 1169–1186.
  7. Stadtman, E. R.; Novelli, G. D.; Lipmann, F. (1951). "Coenzyme A function in and acetyl transfer by the phosphotransacetylase system". J. Biol. Chem. 191 (1): 365–376.
  8. Stadtman, E. R.; Burton, R. M. (1955). "Aldehyde dehydrogenase from Clostridium kluyveri". Methods Enzymol. 1: 518–523. doi:10.1016/0076-6879(55)01089-6.
  9. Stadtman, E. R.; Cohen, G. N.; Robichon-Szulmajster, H. D.; Lebras, G. (1961). "Feed-back inhibition and repression of aspartokinase activity in Escherichia coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae". J. Biol. Chem. 236 (7): 2033–2038.
  10. Woolfolk, C. A.; Shapiro, B.; Stadtman, E. R. (1966). "Regulation of glutamine synthetase. I. purification and properties of glutamine synthetase from Escherichia coli". Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 116 (1): 177–192. doi:10.1016/0003-9861(66)90026-9.
  11. Stadtman, E. R.; Chock, P. B. (1977). "Superiority of interconvertible enzyme cascades in metabolic regulation: analysis of monocyclic systems". Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. doi:10.1073/pnas.74.7.2761.
  12. "Pfizer Award in Enzyme Chemistry" (PDF). divbiolchem.org. Division of Biological Chemistry. Retrieved 18 October 2022.
  13. "The President's National Medal of Science: Recipient Details". National Science Foundation. Retrieved 18 October 2022.
  14. The medal was awarded "for seminal contributions to understanding of the energy metabolism of anaerobic bacteria and for elucidation of major mechanisms whereby the rates of metabolic processes are finely matched to the requirements of the living cell."
  15. "Earl R. Stadtman". The Welch Foundation. Retrieved 18 October 2022.
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