James Batcheller Sumner

Sumner, James Batcheller 

Born Nov. 19, 1887, in Canton, Ohio; died Aug. 12, 1955, in Buffalo, N.Y. American biochemist. Member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Sumner graduated from Harvard University in 1910 and obtained his Ph.D. there in 1914. From 1914 to 1929 he taught biochemistry at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y.; in 1929 he became director of Cornell’s laboratory of enzyme chemistry. Sumner’s research dealt with the isolation of individual proteins and enzymes. He was the first to isolate and crystallize an enzyme (urease), thus proving the protein nature of enzymes.

Sumner was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1946 jointly with W. Stanley and J. Northrop.

WORKS

In Russian translation:
Khimiia fermentov i metody ikh issledovaniia. Moscow, 1948. (With G. F. Somers.)

REFERENCE

Kretovich, V. L. Vvedenie ν enzimologiiu, 2nd ed. Moscow, 1974.