Born May 18, 1901, in Chicago. American biochemist.
Du Vigneaud received a bachelor of science degree from the University of Illinois in 1923 and a doctorate degree from the medical school of the University of Rochester in 1927. He taught at the medical schools of Johns Hopkins University, the University of Edinburgh (Great Britain), and the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute (Dresden, Germany). From 1929 to 1932 he was on the faculty of the biochemistry department at the University of Illinois and from 1932 to 1938 at George Washington University. In 1938 he became head of the department of biochemistry at the Cornell University school of medicine and in 1967, a professor in the chemistry department of that university. His principal works are in the study of the chemical structures of insulin and biotin, transmethylation, and the metabolism of amino acids. A number of his works were devoted to the synthesis of penicillin. Du Vigneaud determined the structures of and synthesized the posterior pituitary hormones vasopressin and oxytocin. He was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1955.