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Image: Christoffer P. Michel
Nobel Prize for Chemistry 2002
Year of election: | 1987 |
Section: | Biochemistry and Biophysics |
City: | La Jolla, CA |
Country: | USA |
Research Priorities: Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, molecular structural biology, structural genomics, sarcopenia and osteoporosis
Kurt Wüthrich is a Swiss biophysicist and structural biologist, who is known for his pioneering work on determining the structure of proteins in solution by means of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. In 2002 Wüthrich was awarded one half of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his development of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy for determining the three-dimensional structure of biological macromolecules in solution, the other half going to the US-American chemist John B. Fenn and the Japanese electrical engineer Kōichi Tanaka for their development of mass spectrometry (MS) of proteins. His current research at the iHuman Institute of ShanghaiTech University in China is focused on studies of GPCR dynamics and transmembrane signalling. In addition, he has a keen interest in sarcopenia and osteoporosis in the ageing human population.
NMR spectroscopy is one of the main methods of analysis in chemistry and biochemistry. It allows molecular structures to be depicted in three dimensions and to unravel the interplay between molecules in their physiological functions. The method’s advantage is that proteins can be studied in solution, i.e. in an environment similar to physiological body fluids.
Kurt Wüthrich and his working groups have investigated more than 200 protein and nucleic acid structures of relevance to medicine and biomedical research. For example, Wüthrich’s teams managed to detail the significance of the homeobox, a self-folding domain within a larger protein. Homeoboxes play a key role in the binding of DNA to regulate expression of target genes and thus govern differentiation in higher organisms. Kurt Wüthrich managed, by means of his structural analysis, to investigate immunosuppressants, which play a role in preventing the rejection of transplanted organs.
Between 1996 and 2002 the Wüthrich group identified and detailed the prion proteins of numerous organisms, including humans, cattle, and mice. Prions are proteins that are present in the so-called “cellular form” in healthy organisms, but can become misfolded. Prion proteins play an important role in the development of what is commonly known as “mad cow disease” (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, BSE) and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans.
For the first two decades of the 21st century, Kurt Wüthrich’s group at the Scripps Research Institute in California worked in the area of structural genomics. On the one hand, the team developed NMR methods to efficiently investigate the structures of soluble proteins. A second focus during this time period was the study of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs).
Currently, NMR investigations of GPCR dynamics and transmembrane signalling are pursued at the iHuman Institute of ShanghaiTech University in China. In his workplaces at the ETH Zürich and at Scripps Research, Kurt Wüthrich follows his interests in sarcopenia and osteoporosis in the ageing human population.