(born April 6, 1911, Munich, Germany—died August 6, 1979, Munich) German biochemist who, for his research on the metabolism of cholesterol and fatty acids, was a corecipient (with Konrad Bloch) of the 1964 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine.
Lynen was trained at the University of Munich. After several years as a lecturer in the chemistry department there (1942–47), he became a professor.
While at Munich he worked on the intermediary metabolism of the living cell. This research led to his demonstration in the early 1950s that the acetylation of coenzyme A is the key first step in a chain of reactions that result in the formation of cholesterol and fatty acids. In 1954 Lynen became director of the Max Planck Institute for Cell Chemistry in Munich.
Lynen was highly regarded in the scientific community. His work on the biosynthesis of cholesterol and fatty acids was cited by the Nobel Prize committee as a contribution to pure chemistry and to the search for a remedy for heart disease related to cholesterol.
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