The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1910
Albrecht Kossel
Presentation Speech by Professor the Count K.A.H. Mörner, Rector of the Royal Caroline Institute, on December 10, 1910
Your Majesty, Your Royal Highnesses, Ladies
and Gentlemen.
As you are aware the medical Nobel Prize has this year been
conferred on the Professor of Physiology at the University of Heidelberg, Geheimrat Albrecht
Kossel.
Before he is presented with the prize I want to try to describe
in a few words his scientific work and its significance for
biology.
As my starting-point and in connection with the events of the
last few days* I would first like to
recall a remark made by Berzelius more than a hundred years ago,
when he was an assistant professor in the School of Surgery which
existed here in Stockholm before the Caroline Institute was
formed. Through his lectures there Berzelius gave a fresh impetus
and a new direction to the branch of chemical research which was
at that time called «animal chemistry» and which is now
usually termed physiological chemistry. The direction in which
Berzelius sought to lead research strove to link chemical
investigations as closely as possible with anatomical
observations and with the study of the vital phenomena, in order,
as Berzelius says, «to attempt to find a clue to the
chemistry of the living body through the chemical knowledge of
our laboratories and, if possible, to establish the relationships
and the resultant phenomena of which life and its continuance are
composed».
Research in physiological chemistry seeks to approach the goal at
which Berzelius aimed by following the path which he mapped
out.
The studies to which Professor Kossel has devoted himself for
more than a quarter of a century are links in a continuous chain
of investigation which seeks, as directly as is at present
possible, to steer our knowledge towards this goal.
Many vital phenomena are of course such that chemical research,
at least at present, is far from being able to illuminate them to
any real extent. This is the case, for instance, with mental
activity and the manifestations of life related to it.
Other vital phenomena are more easily accessible to the chemist
and have for long been the object of his work. This applies to
such subjects as nutrition, growth, metabolism, and the chemical
composition of the organs and body fluids.
The working methods chosen differ according to the angle from
which the problem is attacked. In, for example, the studies on
metabolism which have been carried out for several decades, the
amount and type of the nutrients which are required by the
organism under different conditions are established and the
metabolic end-products which are excreted by the organism are
determined. Such a determination of the intake and output of the
organism gives a picture of its overall economy and can also give
certain information on the internal factors of its
management.
The problems are attacked in a more direct way by endeavouring by
direct experiment to determine the composition of the different
organs, their functions, etc. In this the efforts of the
anatomist, the histologist, the experimental physiologist and the
chemist go hand in hand, as they seek together to penetrate the
dark secrets of life. The task of the chemist is to determine the
chemical structure of the parts of the body and the chemical
processes taking place within them.
The study of the living organism has more and more led to the
view that its smallest independent units morphologically speaking
- the cells - also to a certain degree lead an independent life
and are the real seats of the vital processes. The cells
therefore attract special attention in biological research, and
studies which widen our knowledge of the cells to any important
extent deserve to be given prominence.
Prof. Kossel has chosen to devote himself to this field of
research, and it is for his work in this respect that the Nobel
Prize has been awarded to him this year.
The cells of the organism exhibit on the one hand certain special
characteristics according to the organs to which they belong and
on the other hand general, shared characteristics as well. It has
long been known, and is easy to demonstrate, that the main mass
of their organic substance consists of materials belonging to the
group of protein bodies. They are however dissimilar in different
cases. The development of protein chemistry in general, and of
the specialized knowledge of the protein bodies occurring in
cells and of the combined forms in which they appear, is
therefore an important link in the chain of knowledge of cell
chemistry and consequently also a factor of great importance in
research on cellular life and functions.
Professor Kossel has made important contributions to research in
the ways we have just mentioned. This is not the place to give a
detailed account of his work, but I cannot leave trying, in a few
words, to indicate its significance.
For some decades highly successful attempts have been made to
learn more of the detailed structure of these biologically
significant proteins by studying their breakdown products. It has
been shown that proteins are usually built up of a large number
of mutually-differing atom complexes. These can, by and large, be
arranged in two major groups, the monoamino acids and the basic
breakdown products. Among the many research workers who have
studied the first group, the Nobel Prize winner for
Chemistry in 1902, Emil Fischer, takes first place through
his brilliant analytical and synthetic studies. The second group
of the breakdown products, is nevertheless no less important, and
in the investigation of these Professor Kossel has earned great
credit.
The first really clear picture of these substances was given by
Drechsel and his students, among whom the name of a Swedish
research worker who was recently returned to his native land may
be specially mentioned. Professor Kossel has since then enlarged
the knowledge by the discovery of new, related substances, and in
particular he has, by means of extensive work using new methods
which he himself elaborated, carried the knowledge of the
quantitative relationships of these substances in the protein
molecule further than is the case for the other protein breakdown
products.
There are several kinds of proteins. One group which is included
here are the so-called protamines obtained from the milt of fish.
Kossel has made a detailed study of these. For these a relatively
simple structure has been discovered inasmuch as the number of
dissimilar atom groups in them is not very great. They therefore
present simpler relationships than proteins in general, and
consist mainly of substances belonging to the group which I have
just called basic breakdown products of protein. For certain
protamines Kossel, thanks to his methods of determination, has in
fact been able to establish the quantitative relationships of the
building blocks making up these protamines, a goal which we seem
to be far from attaining where the other proteins are
concerned.
Work on these most simple protein bodies, i.e. the protamines, is
however not only of great importance because it has explained the
structure of such protein bodies. The protamines are also of
direct interest for the knowledge of certain cells and their
life, because they are in fact characteristic of certain
transformation products of the cells and are formed from ordinary
protein.
One protein group, first observed by Kossel, consists of the
so-called histones. They stand between the protamines and what is
termed ordinary protein. This group, again, is important because
of its occurrence as a component of certain cells, and has also
been studied in detail by Kossel.
Professor Kossel has made an extensive and important study of the
problem of the protein compounds in cells. As we have already
mentioned, the proteins are very complex bodies. Within the cells
the relationships are further complicated by the fact that the
proteins there are combined in varying degrees with other
substances such as those grouped under the name of «nucleic
acids». These, too, are far from simple in structure. They
form phosphorus-containing organic substances which, together
with a form of phosphoric acid, usually contain purine bodies,
pyrimidine bodies and a form of sugar or related substance.
Professor Kossel has devoted a great part of his activity to
these problems. It is not practicable to give an account of the
details without taking up too much time, and they must therefore
be passed over on this occasion. I will restrict myself to
remarking that these nucleic acids by their presence in the cells
and their relation to the protein bodies found there, certainly
possess a great biological significance; and furthermore I should
like to emphasize that it is to Kossel and his pupils especially
that we owe our present advanced knowledge of these
problems.
I have tried, albeit in a brief and therefore very incomplete
way, to sketch the principal features of Professor Kossel's
valuable contributions to our present knowledge of cell chemistry
and therefore to an important sector of biology.
In recognition of his work the Staff of Professors of the
Caroline Institute has decided to confer on him this year's Nobel
Prize for Physiology or Medicine.
Geheimrat Professor Kossel. Physiological
Chemistry owed its creation to Berzelius. He was even the first
who showed its present-day direction and led it onto paved roads.
Nevertheless, further development was somewhat retarded. It took
place in numerous countries; in Germany in particular by J. von
Liebig, W. Kühne and F. Hoppe-Seyler. These scientists all
strived - to use Berzelius' own words - «to trace the
chemistry of the living organism with the help of experience
gained in the laboratories, in order to learn, if possible, the
affinities which form the basis of Life».
It was in this direction that they did their work, thereby
studying the chemistry of the elementary constituents of the body
- the cells. In this way they have immensely contributed to the
development of this aspect of biology. It is this achievement of
making possible the solution of fundamental problems in biology,
and thereby contributing to the advancement of research –
which Berzelius in particular appreciated - that the Staff of
Professors of the Caroline Institute wish to distinguish by the
award of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
* The Caroline Institute was celebrating its hundredth anniversary.
From Nobel Lectures, Physiology or Medicine 1901-1921, Elsevier Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 1967
Copyright © The Nobel Foundation 1910
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