Alan R. Battersby

Sir Alan Rushton Battersby FRS (born 1925) is a retired organic chemist known for his work on the genetic blueprint, structure, and synthetic pathway of Cyanocobalamin. This came in collaboration with a partner and also in relation to work on plant alkaloids. He won the Copley Medal in 2000 and has also won other awards such as Royal Medal in 1989.

Birth and academic career

Alan R. Battersby was born in 1925 in the United Kingdom. He was Professor of Organic Chemistry at Cambridge University from 1988 - 1992.

Research

Alan R. Battersby is know for his research on the biosynthesis of the 'pigments of life' haem, chlorophyll and vitamin B12, that are built on closely related tetrapyrrolic structural frameworks. Alan Battersby has demonstrated and elucidated the essential role played by two enzymes, deaminase and cosynthetase, in the construction of the tetrapyrrolic ring with its specific structural features.

He was awarded the Wolf Prize in Chemistry along with Duilio Arigoni of ETH Zurich in 1989 for "their fundamental contributions to the elucidation of the mechanism of enzymic reactions and of the biosynthesis of natural products, in particular the pigments of life". [ [http://www.wolffund.org.il/cat.asp?id=15&cat_title=CHEMISTRY The Wolf Prize in Chemistry] ]

Notes

References

*
*
*

External links

*
* [http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/page.asp?id=1741 Copley Medal site]
* [http://www.wolffund.org.il/full.asp?id=52 The Wolf Prize in Chemistry in 1989 (detail)]