Johann Deisenhofer

Facts

Johann Deisenhofer

Photo from the Nobel Foundation archive.

Johann Deisenhofer
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1988

Born: 30 September 1943, Zusamaltheim, Germany

Affiliation at the time of the award: University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, Dallas, TX, USA; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, USA

Prize motivation: “for the determination of the three-dimensional structure of a photosynthetic reaction centre”

Prize share: 1/3

Work

One of the most fundamental processes of life is photosynthesis, which uses energy from sunlight to make carbohydrates out of water and carbon dioxide. The energy conversion takes place through the transportation of electrons via a number of proteins that are attached to special membranes in the cell. In 1983 Johann Deisenhofer, Hartmut Michel and Robert Huber determined the structure for the photosynthetic reaction center.

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