When World War II started, he joined the Plasma Fractionation Program. His dissertation research focused on the metabolism of fats. Lehninger earned his PhD from the University of Wisconsin in 1942. Lehninger’s interests and major soon shifted to chemistry, and he targeted a new career in medicine and biochemistry. However, one of his teachers, Ross Fortner Jr., introduced him to the emerging field of biochemistry and to the recent discoveries of Otto Warburg and Hans Krebs on cellular metabolism. Originally he intended to write stories and poetry, and he was a member of the Scrawlers’ Club. He attended nearby Wesleyan University, a small liberal arts college for men, from 1935 to 1939. Albert grew up in relative economic security in Bridgeport and Hartford, Connecticut.

His focus on the mitochondrion also laid a foundation for studies on the movement, storing, and regulation of calcium in the cell.įrom Writing to Science. His most significant research achievements were to identify the mitochondrion as the site of the most important energy reactions in the cell and to characterize and quantify many features of that system (including the burning of fats, calcium transport, and proton stoichiometries). Through his research, as well as through substantive contributions in leadership roles and education (including two other books: The Mitochondrion, 1964 and Bioenergetics, 1965), he helped pioneer a new interdisciplinary field, bioenergetics, in the mid-twentieth century. Lehninger is perhaps most widely known for his synoptic and lucid textbook, Biochemistry (1970), which inspired many students in the field.

Baltimore, Maryland, 4 March 1986),īiochemistry, energy metabolism ( bioenergetics). Bridgeport, Connecticut, 17 February 1917, d.

Biochemistry by albert l lehninger