Lipmann, Fritz Albert

(born June 12, 1899, Königsberg, Ger. [now Kaliningrad, Russia]—died July 24, 1986, Poughkeepsie, N.Y., U.S.) German-born American biochemist, who received (with Sir Hans Krebs) the 1953 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of coenzyme A, an important catalytic substance involved in the cellular conversion of food into energy.

Lipmann earned an M.D. degree (1924) and a Ph.D. degree (1927) from the University of Berlin. He conducted research in the laboratory of the biochemist Otto Meyerhof at the University of Heidelberg (1927–30) and then did research at the Biological Institute of the Carlsberg Foundation (Carlsbergfondets Biologiske Institut), Copenhagen (1932–39), and at the Cornell Medical School, New York City (1939–41).

At Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston (1941–57), where he directed the biochemistry research department, and as professor of biological chemistry at the Harvard Medical School (1949–57), Lipmann found a catalytically active, heat-stable factor in pigeon liver extracts. He subsequently isolated (1947), named, and determined the molecular structure (1953) of this factor, coenzyme A (or CoA), which is now known to be bound to acetic acid as the end product of sugar and fat breakdown in the absence of oxygen. Coenzyme A is one of the most important substances involved in cellular metabolism; it helps in the conversion of amino acids, steroids, fatty acids, and hemoglobins into energy.

Lipmann taught or conducted research at the Rockefeller Institute, now Rockefeller University, New York City, from 1957 until his death.

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