Adolf Butenandt's groundbreaking research into sex hormones led to the formulation of the compounds estrone and androsterone , hormones involved in the regulation of sexual processes in the body. He has worked on both male and female sex hormones using microanalytical methods developed by the Austrian chemist Fritz Pregl. By uncovering the underlying structure of sex hormones , Butenandt opened biochemical study to the relationship of the chemical structure of sex hormones and carcinogenic substances. For his work, Butenandt was awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1939, an award that he shared with Leopold Ruzicka but was unable to receive until 1949 because the Nazi government did not allow him to accept it.
Adolf Friedrich Johann Butenandt was born in Bremerhaven-Lehe (now Wesermünde), Germany, on 24 March 1903, to Otto Louis Max Butenandt, a businessman, and Wilhelmina Thomfohrde Butenandt. He received his basic education in Bremerhaven at the Oberrealschule, after which he went to the University of Marburg in 1921 to study chemistry and biology. When he continued his studies at the University of Göttingen in 1924, he was inspired to study biochemistry by his professor, Adolf Windaus.
Upon completion of his dissertation on a compound used in insecticides, Butenandt was granted a doctorate by the University of Göttingen in 1927. He was also made an assistant at the Institute of Chemistry in Göttingen in 1931. He remained in Göttingen until 1933, when he was appointed professor of organic chemistry at the Danzig Institute of Technology. He remained in Danzig until 1936, having been coerced by the Nazi government to reject an appointment to Harvard University in 1935. By 1929 Butenandt had isolated a female sex hormone in pure crystalline form. This research was made possible by his association with Walter Schoeller , the director of research for a pharmaceutical firm, Schering Corporation. Schoeller had asked Windaus for help to investigate the female sex hormones and their chemical structures. Windaus recommended his student, Butenandt, for this research. Schoeller provided Butenandt with the necessary hormonal substances needed to carry out the study. Butenandt first called the hormone he isolated folliculin, because it is secreted in the lining of the follicles of the ovary. It was later renamed estrone, however, because it is an estrogen hormone that controls a number of female processes.
In 1931 Butenandt married Erika von Ziegner, his assistant in his early research. They had two sons, Otfrid and Eckart, and five daughters, Ina, Heide, Anke, Imme, and Maike. Also in 1931, Butenandt was able to confirm the existence of another female sex hormone, estriol, which had been discovered in London by G. F. Merrian. (Another biochemist, the American Edward A. Doisy, had also isolated estrone at about this time.) He also isolated and purified in crystalline form the male sex hormone androsterone, which is secreted from the testes. This hormone is related to testosterone, the main male sex hormone. He continued his research with sex hormones, and by 1934 he and his associates had isolated the hormone progesterone . In five years he was able to synthesize progesterone from its cholesterol precursor.
An important aspect of Butenandt's research with sex hormones was the discovery that the exact location of male sex hormone activity is in the nucleus of the carbon atoms. This was a major contribution to the study of human biochemistry; it enabled scientists to produce various medical products that alleviate the symptoms of major diseases.Cortisone, a synthetic product closely related to some of the hormones Butenandt researched, has been used in the treatment of arthritis and is one example of the medical applications of hormone research. By 1935 Butenandt completed some significant research on testosterone (the main male sex hormone) that led to his discovery of the chemical sites of biological activities. He found that male and female sex hormones were chemically related by a common sterol nucleus.
Butenandt was asked to become director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society, which oversaw all scientific research in Germany, in 1936. He accepted this position from the physicist Max Planck, and the institution now bears Planck's name. The award of the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1939 was made to Butenandt and Leopold Ruzicka for their contributions to the study of sex hormones . Because of the outbreak of World War II and the intervention of the Nazi government, Butenandt was not able to receive his award until 1949.
During the war Butenandt worked on genetic problems relating to eye pigmentation in insects . This research led Butenandt to the one-gene-one enzyme theory that was shared by other researchers. After the war the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute moved to Tübingen; Butenandt became professor of physiological chemistry there and continued his research with insects. By 1953 he had isolated the first insect hormone, ecdysone , which stimulates the transformation of a caterpillar into a butterfly. His associate, Peter Karlson, later showed that ecdysone is derived from cholesterol and is also related to sex hormones in mammals.
In 1956 the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute moved again, this time to Munich, and Butenandt became professor of physiological chemistry at the University of Munich. There, he studied a substance that is synthesized by female silkworms to attract males. Butenandt continued his association with the Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science, serving as its president from 1960 until 1972. He retired from his position at the University of Munich in 1971. Butenandt died in Munich on 18 January 1995.
Butenandt received many awards, including the Grand Cross for Federal Services of West Germany and the Adolf von Harnack Medal of the Max Planck Society. He was made a commander of the Legion of Honor of France in 1969. He received honorary degrees from many universities throughout Europe and held honorary memberships in scientific societies all over the world. He published numerous articles in scientific journals and wrote a number of books.
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