Ochoa, Severo, << oh CHOH uh, say VAY roh >> (1905-1993), a Spanish-born American scientist, suceeded in producing a nucleic acid by artificial means. Nucleic acids are complex chemicals found in the cells of all living things that play vital roles in heredity and cell development. Ochoa’s work led to understanding the processes by which nucleic acids are made in nature. For this work, Ochoa shared the 1959 Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine with American Arthur Kornberg.
Early in his career, Ochoa studied the biochemistry and physiology of muscle. By the 1930’s, he had moved on to the study of enzymes (natural substances that speed up chemical reactions). In 1936, he studied the role of enzymes in fermentation and glycolysis, a process in which a carbohydrate breaks down into an acid. Much of his research was devoted to the function of enzymes in biological oxidation and synthesis, and the building of nucleic acids.
In 1948, Ochoa started to research the fixation of carbon dioxide during photosynthesis, the process by which plants convert energy from sunlight into chemical energy. In 1955, he managed to isolate polynucleotide phosphorylase, an enzyme that was later used to create artificial RNA (ribonucleic acid), a nucleic acid important in making proteins. Ochoa went on to study the properties of polynucleotide phosphorylase and, in the mid-1960’s, he investigated the building of protein. His research into polynucleotide phosphorylase was important in understanding the process in which genetic information affects the function of cells.
Ochoa was born in Luarca, Spain. He studied at Malaga College and at the medical school of the University of Madrid. Ochoa did research in many laboratories, including those at the universities of Glasgow, Oxford, Heidelberg, Madrid, Washington, and New York. He became professor of pharmacology at the New York University School of Medicine in 1946 and, in 1954, professor of biochemistry. He became a United States citizen in 1956.
