description Hartmut Michel Overview
Hartmut Michel is a German biochemist who shared the 1988 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Johann Deisenhofer and Robert Huber. The Nobel Prize was awarded for their pioneering work in determining the three-dimensional structure of a photosynthetic reaction center, a membrane-bound protein complex. Michel achieved this by successfully crystallizing membrane proteins, a feat previously thought extremely difficult. His research significantly advanced the understanding of photosynthesis at a molecular level.
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Hartmut Michel ranks #97 of 150 in the Physician ranking, behind Alois Alzheimer, ahead of Thomas Sydenham.
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What specific breakthrough earned Hartmut Michel the Nobel Prize?
Hartmut Michel was awarded the 1988 Nobel Prize in Chemistry alongside Johann Deisenhofer and Robert Huber for determining the three-dimensional structure of a photosynthetic reaction center. This was the first-ever successful crystallization of an integral membrane protein.
Why was the crystallization of membrane proteins considered so difficult before Michel's work?
Membrane proteins have both hydrophilic and hydrophobic regions, making them extremely difficult to extract and stabilize outside of a cell membrane. Michel developed a novel technique using specific detergents to successfully solubilize and crystallize them for X-ray crystallography.
What specific organism did Hartmut Michel use for his Nobel-winning research?
To isolate the photosynthetic reaction center, Michel used the purple bacterium *Rhodopseudomonas viridis*. This photosynthetic bacterium served as an excellent, simpler model for studying the fundamental processes of plant photosynthesis.
Where does Hartmut Michel currently conduct his research?
Hartmut Michel has served as a director at the Max Planck Institute of Biophysics in Frankfurt, Germany. He has been based there since 1987, leading the Department of Molecular Membrane Biology.
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