Hsien Wu

Wu (surname)

Wu is the Pinyin transliteration of the Chinese surname 吳 , 吴 , which is the tenth most common surname in Mainland China. Several other, less common Chinese surnames with different pronunciations are also transliterated into English as "Wu": 武, 伍, 仵, 烏, 鄔 and 巫...

(吳憲, Simplified Chinese 吴宪 and Hanyu Pinyin Wú Xiàn; 24 November 1893 - 8 August 1959) was an early protein scientist who was the first to propose that protein denaturation was a purely conformational change, i.e., corresponded to protein unfolding

Protein folding

Protein folding is the process by which a protein structure assumes its functional shape or conformation. It is the physical process by which a polypeptide folds into its characteristic and functional three-dimensional structure from random coil....

 and not to some chemical alteration of the protein. This crucial idea was popularized later by Linus Pauling

Linus Pauling

Linus Carl Pauling was an American chemist, biochemist, peace activist, author, and educator. He was one of the most influential chemists in history and ranks among the most important scientists of the 20th century...

 and Alfred Mirsky

Alfred Mirsky

Alfred Ezra Mirsky was an American pioneer in molecular biology.Mirsky graduated from Harvard College in 1922, after which he studied for two years at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons until 1924 when he moved to the University of Cambridge on a US National Research...

.

Wu was born in Fuzhou

Fuzhou

Fuzhou is the capital and one of the largest cities in Fujian Province, People's Republic of China. Along with the many counties of Ningde, those of Fuzhou are considered to constitute the Mindong linguistic and cultural area....

, Fujian

Fujian

' , formerly romanised as Fukien or Huguing or Foukien, is a province on the southeast coast of mainland China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, and Guangdong to the south. Taiwan lies to the east, across the Taiwan Strait...

, China and trained at MIT (undergraduate) then at Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

 (graduate) under Otto Folin

Otto Folin

Otto Knut Olof Folin was a Swedish-born American chemist who is best known for his groundbreaking work at Harvard University on practical micromethods for the determination of the constituents of protein-free blood filtrates and the discovery of creatine phosphate in muscles.-Background:Folin was...

, developing the first assay for blood sugar (Folin-Wu method), then returned to China and a position at Peking Union Medical College

Peking Union Medical College

Peking Union Medical College is among the most selective medical colleges in the People's Republic of China and is renowned both in its own right and for being connected to one of China's most prestigious institutions of higher learning.-History:...

, becoming head of the biochemistry

Biochemistry

Biochemistry, sometimes called biological chemistry, is the study of chemical processes in living organisms, including, but not limited to, living matter. Biochemistry governs all living organisms and living processes...

 department in 1924 at age 30.

Wu left China in 1947 and reside in United States.

Wu's son, Ray J. Wu

Ray Wu

Ray Wu , was a Chinese American biologist and educator. Wu was a pioneer of plant genetic engineering, and the former Liberty Hyde Bailey Professor of Molecular Genetics and Biology at Cornell University....

, became a well-respected professor at Cornell University

Cornell University

Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...

, the Liberty Hyde Bailey

Liberty Hyde Bailey

Liberty Hyde Bailey was an American horticulturist, botanist and cofounder of the American Society for Horticultural Science.-Biography:...

 Professor of Molecular Genetics and Biology, and has been active in studying transgenic plants, particularly rice

Rice

Rice is the seed of the monocot plants Oryza sativa or Oryza glaberrima . As a cereal grain, it is the most important staple food for a large part of the world's human population, especially in East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and the West Indies...

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Further reading