1883-1970

German biochemist who won the Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine in 1931 for his research on respiratory enzymes. Warburg established the value of mannometry (the measurement of changes in gas pressure) as a way to measure the rates of oxygen uptake in living tissue. He discovered the role of the cytochromes, enzymes that, like hemoglobin, contain heme groups. Warburg isolated the first of the flavoproteins, enzymes involved in dehydrogenation reactions, and demonstrated that these enzymes contain a crucial nonprotein component, the coenzyme. He discovered the coenzyme now called nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, investigated photosynthesis, and established differences between the oxygen requirements of cancer cells and normal cells.