Sumner, James

Sumner, James (Batcheller)

(born Nov. 19, 1887, Canton, Mass., U.S.—died Aug. 12, 1955, Buffalo, N.Y.) U.S. biochemist. He taught at Cornell University (1929–55). In 1926 he became the first researcher to crystallize an enzyme (urease); he later crystallized catalase and worked on purification of various other enzymes, which led to recognition that most enzymes are proteins. This work earned him (with John Howard Northrop and Wendell Meredith Stanley) a 1946 Nobel Prize. In 1947 he became director of Cornell's laboratory of enzyme chemistry, established in recognition of his work.

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Sumner, James (Batcheller) (1887–1955) biochemist; born in Canton, Mass. He was affiliated with Cornell for his entire career (1915–55). He was the first researcher to isolate and crystallize an enzyme, the plant enzyme urease, and confirm that it consists of protein (1926). He shared the Nobel Prize in chemistry (1946) with John Northrop and Wendell Stanley.