John Cornforth

Sir John Cornforth received the 1975 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his detailed elucidation of the stereochemistry of enzyme-catalyzed reactions. His work focused on how enzymes control the three-dimensional arrangement of atoms during chemical transformations in the biosynthesis of cholesterol.

Yes, John Cornforth was profoundly deaf from a young age, having begun losing his hearing due to otosclerosis in his early teens. Despite this challenge, he pursued a distinguished career in chemistry, relying heavily on written communication and on the assistance of his wife, Rita Cornforth, herself a chemist.

Cornforth's Nobel Prize work specifically examined the stereochemistry of cholesterol biosynthesis, particularly the enzymatic steps in the squalene-to-cholesterol pathway. He used isotopic labeling with hydrogen isotopes to trace how enzymes selectively remove hydrogen atoms from specific stereochemical positions during these transformations.

John Cornforth was born in Sydney, Australia, in 1917 and moved to England to study at Oxford University. He spent much of his career at the Milstead Laboratory of Chemical Enzymology, a Shell Research facility in Sittingbourne, Kent.