Joseph S. Fruton
Encyclopedia
Joseph Stewart Fruton born Joseph Fruchtgarten, was a Jewish Polish-American biochemist and historian of science. His most significant scientific work involved synthetic peptides and their interactions with protease
s; with his wife Sophia Simmonds he also published an influential textbook, General Biochemistry (1953; 1958). From 1970 until his death, Fruton worked extensively on the history of science
, particularly the history of biochemistry
and molecular biology
.
, Poland
; his father Shama Nuta (Charles) Fruchtgarten was a grain merchant, and his mother Ella (Aisenstadt) Fruchtgarten was a French teacher. Like many other Polish Jews, the Fruchtgartens immigrated to the United States shortly before the outbreak of World War I. They lived in New York City from 1913 to 1917, and in April 1917 they moved to Minsk
(then occupied by the Red Army
in the midst of the Russian Civil War
). Between 1917 and 1923, Fruchtgarten attended school intermittently, moving from Minsk to Siedlce
to Warsaw
to Berlin
, and learning French, German and Latin (in addition to Polish and English). In 1923, the Fruchtgartens returned to New York and changed their name to Fruton to avoid being targets of anti-Semitism. Joseph Fruton followed his father in rejecting religion, but learned early on "not to advertise either [his] Jewishness or [his] atheism."
After a few months at De Witt Clinton High School, Fruton joined the first class of students at James Madison High School
. He graduated summa cum laude in 1927, excelling particularly in chemistry. He applied to Columbia University
, and after an initial rejection—possibly because he was only 15 at the time, possibly because the school had already admitted the quota of New York Jews—his mother convinced an admissions official to reverse the decision. Inspired by the character Max Gottlieb from the Sinclair Lewis
novel Arrowsmith
, Fruton planned his Columbia education around becoming a scientist. The lectures and lab-work of organic chemist John M. Nelson
turned Fruton on to biochemistry. He received his degree in chemistry in 1931, and entered graduate school in the Department of Biological Chemistry in the Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons, working under Hans Thacher Clarke
. Fruton's PhD work focused on "the lability of cystine in alkali", although he developed a broad interest in the range of biochemistry-related research being pursued at the College of Physicians and Surgeons.
During graduate school Fruton also became active politically, opposing fascism, militarism and anti-Semitism. In 1933 he met Sophia "Topsy" Simmonds, whom he married in 1936. Upon completing his PhD in May 1934, Fruton became a research assistant to Max Bergmann
at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research.
. Under the tutelage of fellow Bergmann lab researcher Leonidas Zervas, a pioneer in peptide synthesis, Fruton synthesized stereospecific dipeptides and other small peptides as enzyme substrates. Fruton and his colleagues found significant instances of specificity in a range of proteases—observations that were relevant to the ongoing theoretical discussions of protein structure. His most significant discovery at the Rockefeller Institute was a synthetic peptide substrate for pepsin
, contrary to the common idea that pepsin would not act on short synthetic peptides. As a side project, he also worked on applications of Bergmann and Zervas's carbobenzoxy method of peptide synthesis and the some of the associated side reactions.
Between December 1941 and the end of World War II, research in Bergmann's lab shifted from basic protein chemistry to war-related research under the National Defense Research Committee
, part of the Office of Scientific Research and Development
. Fruton studied the chemistry of nitrogen mustards. In 1943, Fruton won the American Chemical Society
's Eli Lilly Award.
Department of Physiological Chemistry (part of the medical school) —headed then by C. N. Hugh Long—where he taught biological chemistry to medical students. Fruton joined a growing science faculty, which included the editor of the Journal of Biological Chemistry
, Rudolph Anderson
; biochemist Edward Tatum also came to Yale at the same time. In addition to research and teaching at Yale, in 1948 Fruton visited the laboratories of several eminent biochemists: Kaj Linderstrøm-Lang's chemistry department at the Carlsberg Laboratory
; Hugo Theorell
's lab in Stockholm
; and Alexander Todd
's lab at Cambridge University. At the end of his five-year appointment as assistant professor, Fruton was promoted to full professor received a joint appointment in the Chemistry department—at the time, the only Jewish full professor in the medical school. By 1952, he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences
, and that year he also became chairman of the Department of Physiological Chemistry (which was renamed Biochemistry, reflecting the shift in research focus from medical to general biological problems).
Most of Fruton's early research at Yale was funded by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation
; Warren Weaver
was making enzymology one of the Foundation's research focuses. Fruton headed a growing lab that included doctoral students, postdoctoral researchers, and technical assistants. The two main areas of research were the action of proteolytic enzymes and the chemical (as opposed to biological) synthesis of peptides (the substrates used to explore the enzymatic reactions). Members of Fruton's lab studied cathepsin C
and several other peptidases, as well as proteinases that catalyzed transpeptidation, which was thought (and ultimately confirmed) to be part of the biosynthesis of proteins. Rather than leading a team effort focused on a small number of high-priority problems, Fruton allowed members of his laboratory to choose their own problems (usually within the broad bounds of protein synthesis and proteinases). Ph.D. students and postdoctoral researchers who worked in Fruton's lab include: Mary Ellen Jones
, Melvin Fried, Hannelore Würz, Peter Heinrich, Karen Nilsson, Bob Metrione, Yoshihiro Okuda, George Taborsky, Christine Zioudrou, Maxine Singer
, Louis Cohen
, Frederick Newth, John Thanassi, Charles Drey, Derek George Smyth
, Atsuo Nagamatsu, and Milton Winitz. A number of prominent biochemists from outside Yale also spent time in Fruton's biochemistry department during his tenure as chair, including: Harry Kroll, Rosabelle McManus, John Clark Lewis, Herbert Gutfreund, Max Gruber, Frank Hird, Vernon Ingram
, Hans Kornberg
, Dimitrios Theodoropoulos, and Hans Tuppy
.
In 1953, Fruton and Simmonds completed the textbook General Biochemistry, which became one of the most influential textbooks for a generation of biochemistry students. They produced a second edition in 1958.
Fruton and Sophia Simmonds traveled abroad during the 1962–1963 academic year, returning just as the MBB department was being created and the Department of Biochemistry was entering a "crisis" because of the loss of experienced faculty (in particular, Fred Richards
, the new head of MBB, and Ernie Pollard
, who had left to head a biophysics department at Penn State).
Protease
A protease is any enzyme that conducts proteolysis, that is, begins protein catabolism by hydrolysis of the peptide bonds that link amino acids together in the polypeptide chain forming the protein....
s; with his wife Sophia Simmonds he also published an influential textbook, General Biochemistry (1953; 1958). From 1970 until his death, Fruton worked extensively on the history of science
History of science
The history of science is the study of the historical development of human understandings of the natural world and the domains of the social sciences....
, particularly the history of biochemistry
History of biochemistry
The history of biochemistry spans approximately 400 years. Although the term “biochemistry” seems to have been first used in 1882, it is generally accepted that the word "biochemistry" was first proposed in 1903 by Carl Neuberg, a German chemist....
and molecular biology
History of molecular biology
The history of molecular biology begins in the 1930s with the convergence of various, previously distinct biological disciplines: biochemistry, genetics, microbiology, and virology...
.
Childhood and education
Joseph Fruchtgarten was born in CzęstochowaCzestochowa
Częstochowa is a city in south Poland on the Warta River with 240,027 inhabitants . It has been situated in the Silesian Voivodeship since 1999, and was previously the capital of Częstochowa Voivodeship...
, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
; his father Shama Nuta (Charles) Fruchtgarten was a grain merchant, and his mother Ella (Aisenstadt) Fruchtgarten was a French teacher. Like many other Polish Jews, the Fruchtgartens immigrated to the United States shortly before the outbreak of World War I. They lived in New York City from 1913 to 1917, and in April 1917 they moved to Minsk
Minsk
- Ecological situation :The ecological situation is monitored by Republican Center of Radioactive and Environmental Control .During 2003–2008 the overall weight of contaminants increased from 186,000 to 247,400 tons. The change of gas as industrial fuel to mazut for financial reasons has worsened...
(then occupied by the Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
in the midst of the Russian Civil War
Russian Civil War
The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed to the Soviets, under the domination of the Bolshevik party. Soviet forces first assumed power in Petrograd The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) was a...
). Between 1917 and 1923, Fruchtgarten attended school intermittently, moving from Minsk to Siedlce
Siedlce
Siedlce ) is a city in eastern Poland with 77,392 inhabitants . Situated in the Masovian Voivodeship , previously the city was the capital of a separate Siedlce Voivodeship ....
to Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
to Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, and learning French, German and Latin (in addition to Polish and English). In 1923, the Fruchtgartens returned to New York and changed their name to Fruton to avoid being targets of anti-Semitism. Joseph Fruton followed his father in rejecting religion, but learned early on "not to advertise either [his] Jewishness or [his] atheism."
After a few months at De Witt Clinton High School, Fruton joined the first class of students at James Madison High School
James Madison High School (New York)
James Madison High School is a public high school located at 3787 Bedford Avenue, in the Madison section of Brooklyn, New York, and educates grades 9 through 12. It is part of Region 6 in the New York City Department of Education...
. He graduated summa cum laude in 1927, excelling particularly in chemistry. He applied to Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
, and after an initial rejection—possibly because he was only 15 at the time, possibly because the school had already admitted the quota of New York Jews—his mother convinced an admissions official to reverse the decision. Inspired by the character Max Gottlieb from the Sinclair Lewis
Sinclair Lewis
Harry Sinclair Lewis was an American novelist, short-story writer, and playwright. In 1930, he became the first writer from the United States to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, "for his vigorous and graphic art of description and his ability to create, with wit and humor, new types of...
novel Arrowsmith
Arrowsmith (novel)
Arrowsmith is a novel by American author and playwright Sinclair Lewis that was published in 1925. It won the 1926 Pulitzer Prize for Lewis but he refused to accept it. Lewis was greatly assisted in its preparation by science writer Dr. Paul de Kruif, who received 25% of the royalties on sales, but...
, Fruton planned his Columbia education around becoming a scientist. The lectures and lab-work of organic chemist John M. Nelson
John M. Nelson
John Mandt Nelson was a U.S. Representative from Wisconsin.Born in Burke, Wisconsin, Nelson attended the public schools and was graduated from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1892....
turned Fruton on to biochemistry. He received his degree in chemistry in 1931, and entered graduate school in the Department of Biological Chemistry in the Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons, working under Hans Thacher Clarke
Hans Thacher Clarke
Hans Thacher Clarke was one of the world's leading biochemists.His father, Joseph Thacher Clarke, was an archaeologist who was friendly with George Eastman of the Kodak company...
. Fruton's PhD work focused on "the lability of cystine in alkali", although he developed a broad interest in the range of biochemistry-related research being pursued at the College of Physicians and Surgeons.
During graduate school Fruton also became active politically, opposing fascism, militarism and anti-Semitism. In 1933 he met Sophia "Topsy" Simmonds, whom he married in 1936. Upon completing his PhD in May 1934, Fruton became a research assistant to Max Bergmann
Max Bergmann
Max Bergmann was a Jewish-German biochemist. He was the first to use the Carboxybenzyl protecting group for the synthesis of oligopeptides.-Life and work:Bergmann was born in Fürth, Bavaria, Germany on February 12, 1886....
at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research.
Research at the Rockefeller Institute
Fruton was a researcher at the Rockefeller Institute from 1934 to 1945, part of Max Bergmann's long-term and very successful research program in protein chemistry. In his earliest work there, Fruton tested the stereochemical specificity of dipeptidaseDipeptidase
Dipeptidases are enzymes secreted by enterocytes into the small intestine. Dipeptidases hydrolyze bound pairs of amino acids, called dipeptides....
. Under the tutelage of fellow Bergmann lab researcher Leonidas Zervas, a pioneer in peptide synthesis, Fruton synthesized stereospecific dipeptides and other small peptides as enzyme substrates. Fruton and his colleagues found significant instances of specificity in a range of proteases—observations that were relevant to the ongoing theoretical discussions of protein structure. His most significant discovery at the Rockefeller Institute was a synthetic peptide substrate for pepsin
Pepsin
Pepsin is an enzyme whose precursor form is released by the chief cells in the stomach and that degrades food proteins into peptides. It was discovered in 1836 by Theodor Schwann who also coined its name from the Greek word pepsis, meaning digestion...
, contrary to the common idea that pepsin would not act on short synthetic peptides. As a side project, he also worked on applications of Bergmann and Zervas's carbobenzoxy method of peptide synthesis and the some of the associated side reactions.
Between December 1941 and the end of World War II, research in Bergmann's lab shifted from basic protein chemistry to war-related research under the National Defense Research Committee
National Defense Research Committee
The National Defense Research Committee was an organization created "to coordinate, supervise, and conduct scientific research on the problems underlying the development, production, and use of mechanisms and devices of warfare" in the United States from June 27, 1940 until June 28, 1941...
, part of the Office of Scientific Research and Development
Office of Scientific Research and Development
The Office of Scientific Research and Development was an agency of the United States federal government created to coordinate scientific research for military purposes during World War II. Arrangements were made for its creation during May 1941, and it was created formally by on June 28, 1941...
. Fruton studied the chemistry of nitrogen mustards. In 1943, Fruton won the American Chemical Society
American Chemical Society
The American Chemical Society is a scientific society based in the United States that supports scientific inquiry in the field of chemistry. Founded in 1876 at New York University, the ACS currently has more than 161,000 members at all degree-levels and in all fields of chemistry, chemical...
's Eli Lilly Award.
Biochemistry at Yale
In 1945, after Max Bergmann's death, Fruton joined the Yale UniversityYale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
Department of Physiological Chemistry (part of the medical school) —headed then by C. N. Hugh Long—where he taught biological chemistry to medical students. Fruton joined a growing science faculty, which included the editor of the Journal of Biological Chemistry
Journal of Biological Chemistry
The Journal of Biological Chemistry is a weekly peer-reviewed scientific journal that was established in 1905. Since 1925 it is published by the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. It covers research in any area of biochemistry or molecular biology. The editor-in-chief is...
, Rudolph Anderson
Rudolph Anderson
Rudolf Anderson, Jr. was a pilot and officer in the United States Air Force, and the first recipient of the Air Force Cross...
; biochemist Edward Tatum also came to Yale at the same time. In addition to research and teaching at Yale, in 1948 Fruton visited the laboratories of several eminent biochemists: Kaj Linderstrøm-Lang's chemistry department at the Carlsberg Laboratory
Carlsberg Laboratory
The Carlsberg Laboratory in Copenhagen, Denmark was created in 1875 by J. C. Jacobsen, the founder of the Carlsberg brewery, for the sake of advancing biochemical knowledge, especially relating to brewing. It featured a Department of Chemistry and a Department of Physiology...
; Hugo Theorell
Hugo Theorell
Axel Hugo Theodor Theorell was a Swedish scientist and Nobel Prize laureate in medicine.He was born in Linköping as the son of Thure Theorell and his wife Armida Bill. Theorell went to Secondary School at Katedralskolan in Linköping and passed his examination there on 23 May 1921...
's lab in Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
; and Alexander Todd
Alexander Todd
Alexander Todd may refer to:* Alexander Todd , England and British Lions rugby union player* Alexander R. Todd, Baron Todd, Scottish biochemist and Nobel Prize winner...
's lab at Cambridge University. At the end of his five-year appointment as assistant professor, Fruton was promoted to full professor received a joint appointment in the Chemistry department—at the time, the only Jewish full professor in the medical school. By 1952, he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences
United States National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...
, and that year he also became chairman of the Department of Physiological Chemistry (which was renamed Biochemistry, reflecting the shift in research focus from medical to general biological problems).
Most of Fruton's early research at Yale was funded by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation
Rockefeller Foundation
The Rockefeller Foundation is a prominent philanthropic organization and private foundation based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The preeminent institution established by the six-generation Rockefeller family, it was founded by John D. Rockefeller , along with his son John D. Rockefeller, Jr...
; Warren Weaver
Warren Weaver
Warren Weaver was an American scientist, mathematician, and science administrator...
was making enzymology one of the Foundation's research focuses. Fruton headed a growing lab that included doctoral students, postdoctoral researchers, and technical assistants. The two main areas of research were the action of proteolytic enzymes and the chemical (as opposed to biological) synthesis of peptides (the substrates used to explore the enzymatic reactions). Members of Fruton's lab studied cathepsin C
Cathepsin C
Cathepsin C also known as dipeptidyl peptidase I is a lysosomal exo-cysteine protease belonging to the peptidase C1 family...
and several other peptidases, as well as proteinases that catalyzed transpeptidation, which was thought (and ultimately confirmed) to be part of the biosynthesis of proteins. Rather than leading a team effort focused on a small number of high-priority problems, Fruton allowed members of his laboratory to choose their own problems (usually within the broad bounds of protein synthesis and proteinases). Ph.D. students and postdoctoral researchers who worked in Fruton's lab include: Mary Ellen Jones
Mary Ellen Jones
Mary Ellen Jones is an educator and politician most notable for having served as New York State Senator. She is a Democrat.Jones graduated with a bachelor's and master's degree from the University of Rochester. She served as a first-grade teacher in the Greece, New York school district for 26...
, Melvin Fried, Hannelore Würz, Peter Heinrich, Karen Nilsson, Bob Metrione, Yoshihiro Okuda, George Taborsky, Christine Zioudrou, Maxine Singer
Maxine Singer
Maxine Frank Singer is an American molecular biologist and science administrator. She is known for her contributions to solving the genetic code, her role in the ethical and regulatory debates on recombinant DNA techniques , and her leadership of Carnegie Institution of Washington.Singer...
, Louis Cohen
Louis Cohen
Louis Cohen was a New York mobster who murdered labor racketeer "Kid Dropper" Nathan Kaplan and was an associate of labor racketeer Louis "Lepke" Buchalter...
, Frederick Newth, John Thanassi, Charles Drey, Derek George Smyth
Derek George Smyth
Derek Smyth is a British born scientist who specialises in peptide chemistry.-Background:Derek Smyth was Head of the Laboratory of Peptide Chemistry at the National Institute for Medical Research from 1972-1992...
, Atsuo Nagamatsu, and Milton Winitz. A number of prominent biochemists from outside Yale also spent time in Fruton's biochemistry department during his tenure as chair, including: Harry Kroll, Rosabelle McManus, John Clark Lewis, Herbert Gutfreund, Max Gruber, Frank Hird, Vernon Ingram
Vernon Ingram
Vernon M. Ingram, Ph.D., FRS was a German American professor of biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.-Biography:Ingram was born in Breslau, Lower Silesia...
, Hans Kornberg
Hans Kornberg
Professor Sir Hans Leo Kornberg, FRS is a British biochemist.-Early Life, Education and Career:Kornberg was born in 1928 in Germany of Jewish parents. In 1939 he left Nazi Germany , and moved to the care of an uncle in Yorkshire...
, Dimitrios Theodoropoulos, and Hans Tuppy
Hans Tuppy
Hans Tuppy is a biochemist who participated in the sequencing of insulin, and became Austria's first university professor for biochemistry. He was Austrian Minister for Science and Research from 1987−1989.- Family background and youth :...
.
In 1953, Fruton and Simmonds completed the textbook General Biochemistry, which became one of the most influential textbooks for a generation of biochemistry students. They produced a second edition in 1958.
Administrative work
In 1959, after offering advice to Yale president A. Whitney Griswold on strengthening the sciences at Yale, Fruton became Director of the Division of Science, a position he held until 1962. His work led to the creation of the short-lived Department of Molecular Biology and Biophysics (MBB), although his initial proposal to create a similar department that combined the existing biophysics and biochemistry departments was rejected. Fruton became burnt out on Yale politics after an extended conflict with provost Kingman Brewster, in which Brewster attempted to bypass Fruton's science advisory committee and create a molecular biology department independent of biochemistry department; the MBB department was created only after Brewster had failed to attract a prominent scientist from outside Yale to head a molecular biology department, and the Department of Biochemistry remained separate as part of the medical school until the creation of the Department of Molecular Biophysics & Biochemistry (MB&B) in 1969 (which was itself created after a lengthy and unsuccessful attempt to find a suitably eminent replacement for Fruton to head the Department of Biochemistry).Fruton and Sophia Simmonds traveled abroad during the 1962–1963 academic year, returning just as the MBB department was being created and the Department of Biochemistry was entering a "crisis" because of the loss of experienced faculty (in particular, Fred Richards
Frederic M. Richards
Frederic Middlebrook Richards , or commonly referred to as Fred Richards, was Sterling Professor Emeritus of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale University.-Biography:...
, the new head of MBB, and Ernie Pollard
Ernest C. Pollard
Ernest Charles "Ernie" Pollard was a professor of physics and biophysics and an author, who worked on the development of radar systems in World War II, worked on the physics of living cells, and who wrote textbooks and approximately 200 papers on nuclear physics and radiation biophysics.-...
, who had left to head a biophysics department at Penn State).
Works
- General Biochemistry (1953, 1958), with Sophia Simmonds
- Molecules and Life: Historical Essays on the Interplay of Chemistry and Biology (1972)
- A Bio-bibliography for the History of the Biochemical Sciences since 1800 (1982, 1985, 1994)
- Contrasts in Scientific Style: Research Groups in the Chemical and Biochemical Sciences (1990)
- A Skeptical Biochemist (1992)
- Eighty Years (1994)
- Proteins, Enzymes, Genes: The Interplay of Chemistry and Biology (1999)
- Methods and Styles in the Development of Chemistry (2002)
External links
- Joseph Stewart Fruton Papers – Yale University Library