Gerald Maurice EdelmanBorn 1 Jul 1929. American biochemist whose contributions in elucidating the chemical structure of antibodies won him (with Rodney Porter) the Nobel Prize for Medicine or Physiology in 1972. Edelman studied the structure of human immunoglobulin. He first split this large molecule into smaller portions, by reducing and splitting the disulfide bonds. Edelman proposed that the molecule contained two kinds of polypeptide chains: light and heavy. From such studies, Porter proposed a structure for the antibody immunoglobulin G (IgG) in 1962. Edelman aimed to work out the complete amino-acid sequence of IgG. As it contained 1330 amino acids it was by far the largest protein then attempted. By 1969 he announced the complete sequence. |
