Helmut Zahn

Helmut Zahn
Born13 June 1916
Erlangen, Germany
Died14 November 2004(2004-11-14) (aged 88)
Aachen, Germany
NationalityGerman
Alma materUniversity of Karlsruhe (TH)
Known forfirst synthesis of Insulin
Scientific career
Fieldstextile chemistry
InstitutionsRWTH Aachen
University of Heidelberg

Helmut Zahn (born 13 June 1916 in Erlangen; died 14 November 2004 in Aachen) was a German chemist who is often credited as the first to synthesize Insulin in 1963. His results synthesizing insulin were achieved almost simultaneously with that of Panayotis Katsoyannis at the University of Pittsburgh.[1][2][3] His work was not honoured by the Nobel prize because in 1958 Frederick Sanger was the first who discovered the chemical structure of Insulin.

Helmut Zahn studied chemistry at the University of Karlsruhe (TH) and received his PhD in 1940. He habilitated at the University of Heidelberg and became director of the Deutsches Wollforschungsinstitut at the RWTH Aachen University in 1952.

  1. ^ Goro, Fritz (1964-05-08). "First Man-made Protein in History". Life. Vol. 56, no. 19. New York, NY: Time, Inc. pp. 47–9. Retrieved 2009-11-02.
  2. ^ Federwisch, Matthias; Dieken, Markus Leyck; De Meyts, Pierre, eds. (2002). Insulin & Related Proteins – Structure to Function and Pharmacology. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers. pp. ix. ISBN 1-4020-0655-1. Retrieved 2009-11-02.
  3. ^ Meienhofer, J.; Schnabel, E.; Bremer, H.; Brinkhoff, O.; Zabel, R.; Sroka, W.; Klostermeyer, H.; Brandenburg, D.; Okuda, T.; Zahn, H., eds. (1963). "Synthese der Insulinketten und ihre Kombination zu insulinaktiven Präparaten" (PDF). Zeitschrift für Naturforschung B (18b). De Gruyter: 1120–1121. doi:10.1515/znb-1963-1223. ISSN 0932-0776. S2CID 97505793. Retrieved 2020-08-14.