Biographical Memoirs Volume 91 (2009) / Chapter Skim
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PAUL KARL STUMPF
PAUL KARL STUMPF
Pages 284-305
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From page 285... ...
Others have written, His research accomplishments elucidating the synthesis and metabolism of fats and lipids are too numerous to list here. His discovery in plants of the pathway for degrading fatty acids by alpha-oxidation stands as a singularly important achievement as it provided the understanding of the biochemical basis for a class of human genetic defects, including adult Refsum disease, an inability to metabolize phytanic acid.
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From page 286... ...
One of its victims, Karl Muck, was arrested and jailed as a German spy on March 27, 1918, and by June 24, 1918, eighteen German members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, including Karl Stumpf, were dismissed. Without an income and any hope of securing a similar position with an American orchestra, and with a growing family (Paul's brother Felix had been born on February 10, 1917, and Annette Stumpf was pregnant with Paul)
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From page 287... ...
In the fall of 1934 Paul's brother, Felix, was accepted as a student at Harvard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Consequently Annette Stumpf sold the resort hotel and established a boarding house in Cambridge.
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From page 288... ...
Green, who was occupying a small, dark laboratory with a single wooden bench and enormous soapstone sink, essentially devoid of any equipment. After a short series of questions, Green accepted Paul and put him to work purifying a new enzyme, potato starch phosphorylase.
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From page 289... ...
At that time Lipmann had isolated a pyruvic dehydrogenase from Lactobacillus delbrueckii that oxidized pyruvic acid in the presence of inorganic phosphate to carbon dioxide and acetyl phosphate, a potentially active acetate compound. The enzyme that Stumpf had isolated possessed none of these properties since it did not require inorganic phosphate, and the end product was free acetic acid.
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From page 290... ...
A friend of Stumpf's in New York City indicated that her uncle, Professor Thomas Francis, chair of the Department of Epidemiology at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, was interested in appointing a biochemist. Paul contacted Professor Francis to indicate he would be interested in the opening and would initiate research in the biochemistry of virus reproduction.
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From page 291... ...
Francis accepted the decision but was annoyed at Stumpf's departure from Ann Arbor. After 18 months in Michigan, the Stumpfs purchased a second-hand Plymouth and late in December 1947 left wintry Ann Arbor for the delightful climate of the Bay Area, where Paul began his career as a plant biochemist on the Berkeley campus of the University of California.
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From page 292... ...
Barker soon realized that Newcomb, a Guggenheim fellow from the University of Wisconsin, was more interested in plants than microbes, and therefore suggested he work with Paul Stumpf. During his research, Barker had accumulated a number of 14C-labeled fatty acids including (1 and 3-14C)
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From page 293... ...
He soon discovered that the unknown material was glycolic acid, a well-known organic acid in plants. Glycolic acid is rapidly oxidized to glyoxylic acid and H2O2 by the enzyme glycolic acid oxidase.
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From page 294... ...
. In 1954 I was privileged to join the Berkeley Department of Agricultural Biochemistry, which now housed Paul Stumpf, H
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From page 295... ...
The move was accompanied by the addition of two new faculty hires, Lloyd Ingraham from the Western Regional Research Lab in Albany, and Sterling Chaykin, who had just completed a postdoctoral position with Konrad Bloch at Harvard University. By this time Paul had initiated his studies on the β-oxidation of long chain fatty acids that had been demonstrated early on with labeled substrates.
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From page 296... ...
The discovery of acyl-ACP thioesterases led to a description of "CoA track" versus "ACP track" reactions that was a conceptual precursor to the prokaryotic and eukaryotic two-pathway hypothesis that has underpinned much of modern plant lipid research.2 We've also written, In addition to his fundamental research contributions, results from the Stumpf lab laid the foundation for the genetic modification of oilseeds to improve their fatty acid composition. Paul was a key early advisor and consultant for Calgene, the successful biotech company founded in Davis.
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From page 297... ...
Paul was also the founding president of the UC Davis Emeriti Association, chair of the UC Davis Academic Senate Emeriti Committee, and secretary of the Council of University Emeriti Associates. Paul also served on numerous review and advisory panels for the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the U.S.
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From page 298... ...
A few years after Paul Stumpf retired, the Board on Agriculture of the National Research Council issued a report in which it analyzed the persistent inadequate funding of research in the agricultural sciences and recommended that Congress greatly increase its annual appropriation from $40 million to $500 million.
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From page 299... ...
During those three years in Washington, Stumpf thoroughly enjoyed the drastic change from being an academic to heading an important federal organization, which provided research funds for many agricultural scientists. Besides dealing with scientists and solving minor problems that would arise in the program, Paul also had the responsibility of explaining the programs to members of Congress.
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From page 300... ...
Paul Karl Stumpf obituary.
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From page 301... ...
1994. A retrospective review of plant lipid research.
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From page 302... ...
Fatty acid synthesis and oxidation in peanut cotyledons. In Phosphorus Metabolism, vol.
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From page 303... ...
LIX. Properties of a soluble stearoyl acyl carrier protein desaturase from maturing Carthamus tinctorius seeds.
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From page 304... ...
The prokaryotic nature of the fatty acid synthase of developing Carthamus tintorius L seeds.
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