Biographical Memoirs Volume 48 (1976) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
Donald Dexter Van Slyke
Donald Dexter Van Slyke
Pages 308-361
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 309... ...
His mother, Lucy Dexter Van Slyke, died two years later.
|
From page 310... ...
His doctoral thesis, published with Gomberg in the Journal of the American Chemical Society in 1907, was entitled: "The Action of Molecular Silver, of Silver Sulfate and Chloride, and of Sulfuric Acid upon Halogenated Derivatives of Triphenyl-Carbinol Chloride." This occurred shortly after Gomberg's exciting discovery in 1900 of the free radical triphenylmethyl. Van has delightfully reminisced about his days when he was working in Gomberg's laboratory.
|
From page 311... ...
THE ROCKEFELLER INSTITUTE, LEVENE PERIOD The first seven years were spent with Levene, which Van has described as a "wonderful time" working on proteins and amino acids. In 1911, Levene arranged for Van to spend a year in Berlin with Emil Fischer, who was then the leading chemist of the scientific world.
|
From page 312... ...
Van was remarkably productive and happy in his work with Levene. As he has stated, work on proteins and amino acids was "his first and enduring love." HOSPITAL OF THE ROCKEFELLER INSTITUTE PERIOD Then in 1914 came an opportunity to become the chief chemist of the newly opened Hospital of the Rockefeller Institute, at the invitation of Dr.
|
From page 313... ...
Van Slyke also had the good fortune at this time to obtain the services of John Plazin, a young emigre from Latvia, as his personal laboratory assistant. John's ambition was to be the best assistant conceivable for Donald Dexter Van Slyke.
|
From page 314... ...
The problem thus became one of devising an analytical method that would permit the quantitative determination of bicarbonate concentration in small amounts of blood plasma. Again Van turned to a gasometric procedure.
|
From page 315... ...
Within seven years after Van moved to the Hospital, he had published a total of fifty-three papers, thirty-three of them coauthored with clinical colleagues. Quantitative clinical chemistry was well on its way at the Hospital, and Van Slyke's contribution to it was well established.
|
From page 316... ...
One of these papers was especially notable. In it were developed equations that predicted the change in distribution of water and diffusible ions between blood plasma and blood cells when there was a change in pH of the oxygenated blood.
|
From page 317... ...
This proved to be useful in determining buffer values of mixed, polyvalent, and amphoteric electrolytes, and put the understanding of buffering on a quantitative basis. It was applied in Van's laboratory to the determination of dissociation constants of polyvalent weak acids such as citric acid, whose three acid groups have overlapping dissociation constants.
|
From page 318... ...
For example, during 1928 Van and eight of his associates published twelve papers: one on a gasometric method for sugar determination in blood and urine, another on a new method for hemoglobin determination, three on factors affecting urea excretion in health and disease, and seven additional entries in the series "Studies of Gas and Electrolyte Equilibria in Blood." One of these, "The Solubility of Carbon Dioxide at 38 ° in Water, Salt Solution, Serum, and Blood Cells," was notable in that the first measurements on the subject were made in 1922, six years prior to publication. Each year the results would be written up for publication and each year Van would say: "We'll take another look at this in the fall, to make sure we can't improve on the accuracy." This was repeated annually until it met Van's standards.
|
From page 319... ...
A Phillips, developed a simple method, based on specific gravity, suitable for use in the field, for determining red blood cell concentration in whole blood and protein concentration in blood plasma.
|
From page 320... ...
VAN SLYKE AND QUANTITATIVE CLINICAL CHEMISTRY The progress made in the medical sciences in genetics, immunology, endocrinology, and antibiotics during the second half of the twentieth century obscures at times the progress that was made in basic and necessary biochemical knowledge during the first half. Methods capable of giving accurate quantitative chemical information on biological material had to be painstakingly devised; basic questions on chemical behavior and metabolism had to be answered; and, finally, those factors that adversely modified the normal chemical reactions in the body so that abnormal conditions arise that we characterize as disease states had to be identified.
|
From page 321... ...
That outstanding additions to knowledge in all three categories were possible was in large measure due to his sound and broadly based chemical preparation, his ingenuity in devising means of accurate measurements of chemical constituents, and the opportunity given him at the Hospital of the Rockefeller Institute to study disease .
|
From page 322... ...
During the period 1921-1926, while I was his assistant, the problems under investigation in his laboratory included the development of methods; the study of blood as a physicochemical system and its relation to respiratory diseases; the study of proteins and amino acids and their metabolism; his early world with Dr. Alma Hiller on what ultimately proved to be the new amino acid hydroxylysine; and, finally, in collaboration with clinical colleagues, a definitive study of various types of nephritis.
|
From page 323... ...
Somewhere along the line, the title was shortened to Quantitative Clinical Chemistry. It must have met a need, because the first edition sold out rather quickly here and abroad and the publishers soon asked the authors to prepare a second edition.
|
From page 324... ...
Van thereby entered upon the second position he was to hold in his lifetime with the vigor and enthusiasm that had characterized his forty-one years at the Rockefeller Institute. Van retained the title of Deputy Director only long enough to ensure the appointment of able chairmen in the departments of biology and of medicine and then renewed his life in the laboratory with John Plazin, his lifetime assistant, who had accompanied him from the Institute.
|
From page 325... ...
H YD R O X Y L Y S I N E In the course of his analysis of proteins at the Rockefeller Institute, Van encountered a discrepancy between the amount of calorimetrically determined histidine in a gelatin hydrolysate and that calculated from arginine and nonamino-nitrogen determinations. This observation led in 1921, after Van had attempted to isolate the substance, to publication in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of a paper entitled "An Unidentified Base among the Hydrolytic Products of Gelatin." Finally, in 1938, Van Slyke, Hiller, Dillon, and MacFadyen announced that the "unidentified base" was the new amino acid, hydroxylysine.
|
From page 326... ...
faculty to provide medical aid to the Chinese people. In 1938, when the American Bureau for Medical Aid to China was formed, Van Slyke was elected a Director; and, in 1941, he became its President, a post he held throughout World War II.
|
From page 327... ...
As an example, I quote from his Harvey Lecture of 1916, "The Present Significance of the Amino Acids in Physiology and Pathology": "It is a pleasure, as well as a duty, to acknowledge my indebtedness to Dr. Levene, for six years my chief at the Rockefeller Institute.
|
From page 328... ...
Once, however, he allowed expression to his subsurface humor in a footnote to be found on page 276 of Quantitative Clinical Chemistry, Volume 2, Methods. It is in the chapter describing the manometric gas apparatus.
|
From page 329... ...
The man responsible for my initial appointment, for my mental and scientific growth while there, and my advancement to an opportunity of greater responsibility, was Donald Dexter Van Slyke. His is such an extraordinary scientific personality that I feel impelled to chronicle my impressions of him.
|
From page 330... ...
A Levene with whom he first worked when he came to the Rockefeller Institute in 1908.
|
From page 331... ...
Sound physico-chemical interpretations of the role of hemoglobin in the transport of 0~ and CON by the blood and of the distribution of water and anions between plasma and erythrocytes. The role of the liver in amino acid metabolism.
|
From page 332... ...
Those of us who worked with him loved him, and those who knew him only through his works admired and respected him. Though the light that was Donald Dexter Van Slyke in life
|
From page 333... ...
DONALD DEXTER VAN SLYKE 333 has gone out, the glow that has illumined so much of chemistry and medicine and so many of those who worked with him shines on. IN PREPARING this memoir, the author has consulted most of Van Slyke's publications, the transcript of an Oral History prepared by Dr.
|
From page 334... ...
334 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS HONORS AND DISTINCTIONS HONORARY DOCTOR OF SCIENCE DEGREES Yale University, 1925 University of Michigan, 1935 Northwestern University, 1940 University of Chicago, 1941 University of London, 1951 Rockefeller University, 1966 HONORARY DOCTOR OF MEDICINE DEGREES University of Oslo, 1938 University of Amsterdam, 1962 University of Ulm, 1970 MEDALS AND AWARDS Charles Mickle Fellowship, University of Toronto, "to the member of the medical profession who has done most during the preceding ten years to advance sound knowledge of a practical kind in medical art or science," 1936 Phillip A Conne Medal, Chemists' Club of New York, for contributions to clinical chemistry, 1936 Willard Gibbs Medal, Chicago Section of the American Chemical Society, for contributions to chemistry, 1939 Order of the Jade, Republic of China, 1939 Kober Medal, Association of American Physicians, for "distinguished research in preventive medicine," 1942 Order of the Brilliant Star, Republic of China, for "meritorious service to the Chinese people," 1947 Fisher Award in Analytical Chemistry, American Chemical Society, 1953 John Phillips Memorial Award, American College of Physicians, for "achievement in internal medicine," 1954 First Van Slyke Award in Clinical Chemistry, American Association of Clinical Chemists, 1957 First Scientific Achievement Award, American Medical Association, 1962 Ames Award, American Association of Clinical Chemistry, 1964 National Medal of Science, USA, 1965
|
From page 335... ...
American Chemical Society New York Academy of Medicine Association of American Physicians American Association of Clinical Chemistry Society of Experimental Biology and Medicine FOREIGN MEMBERSHIPS (HONORARY) Societa di Biologia Chimica, 1928 Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher, 1932 Societa Lombarda di Medicina, 1935 Academy of Science of India, 1935 Society of Biological Chemists of India, 1936 Royal Society of Sciences of Upsala, 1942 Danish Society for Internal Medicine, 1952 Societe de Pathologie Renale, 1952 Societa Italiana di Biologia Sperimentale, 1953 Association of Clinical Biochemists, Britain, 1953 Royal Society of Medicine, Britain, 1958 Academia Nazionale dei Lincei, Italy, 1962 Danish Academy, 1956
|
From page 336... ...
Chem. = Clinical Chemistry Clin.
|
From page 337... ...
Chem., 9:219. The analysis of proteins by determination of the chemical groups characteristic of the different amino acids.
|
From page 338... ...
Gasometric determination of free and conjugated amino acids in the urine.
|
From page 339... ...
Chem., 22:259. Improvements in the method for analysis of proteins by determination of the chemical groups characteristic of the different amino acids.
|
From page 340... ...
American Journal of Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children, 73: 1. 1917 The present significance of the amino acids in physiology and pathology.
|
From page 341... ...
Med., 27: 129. Gasometric determination of the oxygen and hemoglobin of blood.
|
From page 342... ...
XV. Carbon dioxide content and capacity in arterial and venous blood plasma.
|
From page 343... ...
Lundsgaard. The concentration of the plasma proteins in nephritis.
|
From page 344... ...
Gasometric determination of urea with urease.
|
From page 345... ...
The gasometric determination of small amounts of carbon monoxide in blood, and its application to blood volume studies.
|
From page 346... ...
Gasometric determination of hemoglobin by the carbon monoxide capacity method.
|
From page 347... ...
II. Relationship between urine volume and the rate of urea excretion by normal adults.
|
From page 348... ...
Quantitative Clinical Chemistry, vol. 1: Interpretations.
|
From page 349... ...
Quantitative Clinical Chemistry, vol. 2: Methods.
|
From page 350... ...
Relationships between urea excretion, renal blood flow, renal oxygen consume tion and diuresis. The mechanism of urea excretion.
|
From page 351... ...
Gasometric determination of carboxyl groups in amino acids.
|
From page 352... ...
Gasometric determination of carboxyl groups in amino acids. Comptes Rendus du Laboratoire, Carlsberg, 22:480.
|
From page 353... ...
Hamilton. Determination of free amino acids by titration of the carbon dioxide formed in the reaction with ninhydrin.
|
From page 354... ...
The gasometric determination of free amino acids in blood filtrates by the ninhydrin-carbon dioxide method.
|
From page 355... ...
The effects of the volatile aldehydes formed on the accuracy of the manometric ninhydrin-carbon dioxide method in analysis of certain a-amino acids.
|
From page 356... ...
A study of the changes in plasma volume, renal function and water and salt balance induced by repeated administration of human plasma albumin to patients with the nephrotic syndrome.
|
From page 357... ...
Eder. The estimation of plasma protein concentration from plasma specific gravity.
|
From page 358... ...
Proceedings of the Rudolf Virchow Medical Society, 17:59.
|
From page 359... ...
Development of precise methods with a micro form of Van Slyke-Neill manometric apparatus. In: Proceedings of the 4th International Congress on Clinical Chemistry, Edinburgh, Scotland.
|
From page 360... ...
Manometric determination of CO2 combined with scintillation counting of C-14. Analytical Biochemistry, 41:173.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.