Michel, Hartmut, << MIHK uhl, HAHRT mut >> (1948-…), a German biochemist, made an important advance in the study of giant molecules involved in living processes. He crystallized a molecule important in photosynthesis, the process by which plants use the energy of sunlight to manufacture the complex substances that nourish them or that make up their own tissues. Crystallizing the molecule was an essential step in determining its atomic structure, which Michel accomplished over several years. He shared the Nobel Prize for chemistry with his colleague, Johann Deisenhofer and Robert Huber in 1988.
In 1977, Michel was working on a protein called bacteriorhodopsin when, by chance, he observed that it apparently became semicrystalline when stored in a freezer. Bacteriorhodopsin is a protein found in the membranes (outer coverings) of cells, and it is involved in photosynthesis. Scientists had thought it impossible to crystallize membrane proteins, because they would not combine with water to form a crystal structure. The proteins therefore could not be studied with X-ray crystallography, a technique that involves scattering X rays from the rows of regularly spaced atoms in a crystal. Michel began the attempt to crystallize bacteriorhodopsin.
By 1979, he had partly succeeded. He moved to the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry at Martinsried, near Munich, Germany, where Robert Huber had a renowned department carrying out X-ray crystallography of proteins. After failing to achieve crystals of sufficiently good quality, Michel turned to other proteins. He finally succeeded in 1981 with a large molecule from a bacterium. The molecule consisted of four proteins and 14 other components, and served as the bacterium’s photosynthetic reaction center. Also in 1981, Michel obtained the first X-ray picture of it. Later, Huber agreed that one of his team, Johann Deisenhofer, should assist in the analysis of the structure. In 1985, the team announced the detailed arrangement of the atoms of the molecule, over 10,000 in number.
Michel was born in Ludwigsburg in the Wurttemberg region of Germany. As a secondary school pupil, he received a good science education and read eagerly in the sciences. After doing military service, he studied biochemistry at the University of Tubingen, near Stuttgart, Germany. As part of the work for his final diploma, he researched the activity of enzymes (proteins that promote biochemical reactions) in certain bacteria. Michel moved to the University of Wurzburg, where he gained his doctorate in 1977. In 1987, Michel became a director and department head of the Max Planck Institute for Biophysics in Frankfurt-am-Main.
