Warburg, Otto Heinrich (1883-1970), a German biochemist, received the Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine in 1931. Warburg researched the rates of gas consumption of living cells and the process by which this occurred. He identified the importance of cytochromes. A cytochrome is a type of enzyme (a protein that promotes chemical reactions in living cells) and pigment that affects cellular respiration. Warburg also discovered the importance of iron in the respiration of most cells. From this he demonstrated how many of the properties of the respiratory ferment (his name for the respiratory enzyme) are due to the iron it contains.
Warburg’s other related work originally centered on the metabolism of various types of ova (eggs). In 1926, he showed that carbon monoxide inhibits the oxygen uptake of yeast. In the same year, he also developed a manometer, an instrument to measure gas pressure. By the early 1930’s, Warburg had isolated enzymes involved in dehydrogenation (the removal of hydrogen from compounds).
Warburg was born in Freiburg, Germany. He studied chemistry at Berlin, and medicine at Heidelberg. Warburg worked at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Cell Biology (later the Max Planck Institute) in Berlin and became its director in 1931.
