Harold Edwin Umbarger

Harold Edwin Umbarger (17 July 1921, Shelby, Ohio – 15 November 1999, Carmel, Indiana) was an American bacteriologist and biochemist.

Biography

Umbarger grew up in Mansfield, Ohio and graduated from Mansfield Senior High School in 1939. At Ohio University he graduated with a bachelor's degree in chemistry in 1943 and a master's degree in zoology in 1944. For two years from 1944 to 1946 he served in the U.S. Navy as a hospital corpsman.[1] In 1945 he served aboard the USS Rescue.[2] In 1950 he received a Ph.D. in bacteriology from Harvard University.[1] His doctoral thesis, supervised by J. Howard Mueller,[3] is entitled Studies on the Interactions Involved in the Biosynthetic Mechanisms of Isoleucine and Valine in Escherichia Coli.[4] From 1950 to 1959 Umbarger did research at Harvard.[1] From 1957 to 1960 he was an assistant professor of bacteriology and Immunology at Harvard Medical School,[5] but he was untenured. For the academic year 1959–1960, on leave of absence from Harvard, he worked at several laboratories in England. From 1960 to 1964 he held the appointment of Staff Investigator at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.[5] At Purdue University he was appointed in 1964 a full professor and in 1970 Wright Distinguished Professor of Biological Sciences. He held that professorship until his retirement.[1]

Umbarger was a leading expert on biosynthesis of amino acids in bacteria. He is perhaps best known as the co-discoverer, with Edward A. Adelberg in 1953, of feedback inhibition in the metabolism of valine and isoleucine.[2][6] Feedback inhibition in biochemistry had been reported in an almost unknown paper a decade earlier by Zacharias Dische.[7][8]

H(arold) Edwin Umbarger had a major role in defining the pathways that living organisms employ to produce branched-chain amino acids (L-leucine, L-isoleucine, and L-valine), which are required in all proteins. He also played a pivotal role in identifying the biochemical mechanisms that bacterial and yeast cells use to modulate the synthesis of these amino acids in order to match their utilization in protein synthesis.[1]

While he was still a student, Umbarger married Merle Gladys Abele (1922–1993). They had three daughters. In 1995 he married his second wife.[5]

Awards and honors

Selected publications

References
  1. Neidhardt, Frederick C. (2014). "H. Edwin Umbarger 1921–1995" (PDF). Biographical Memoirs. National Academy of Science.
  2. Kresge, Nicole; Simoni, Robert D.; Hill, Robert L. (December 30, 2005). "H. Edwin Umbarger's Contributions to the Discovery of Feedback Inhibition" (PDF). Journal of Biological Chemistry. 280 (52): e49–e50. doi:10.1016/S0021-9258(19)47944-1.
  3. "Harold Edwin Umbarger". Microtree (academictree.org).
  4. "Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College and reports of departments". Archived from the original on 16 July 2012.
  5. "Obituary. H. Edwin Umbarger (availaber at roots web.com)". Mansfield News Journal. 17 November 1999.
  6. Adelberg, Edward A.; Umbarger, H. Edwin (1953). "Isoleucine and valine metabolism in Escherichia coli. V. α-ketoisovaleric acid accumulation". Journal of Biological Chemistry. 205 (1): 475–482. doi:10.1016/S0021-9258(19)77271-8.
  7. Dische, Z. (1941). "Sur l'interdépendance des divers enzymes du système glycolytique et sur la régulation automatique de leur activité dans les cellules". Bull. Soc. Chim. Biol. 23: 1140–1148.
  8. Cornish-Bowden, A. (2021). "Zacharias Dische and the discovery of feedback inhibition: A landmark paper published in the forerunner of Biochimie". Biochimie. 182: 120–130. doi:10.1016/j.biochi.2020.11.013. PMID 33285219. S2CID 227948364.
  9. "Harold Edwin Umbarger". John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.
  10. "Book of Members 1780–present, Chapter U" (PDF). American Academy of Arts and Sciences (amacad.org).
  11. "Past Winners – Rosenstiel Award – Rosenstiel Basic Medical Sciences Research Center – Brandeis University". brandeis.edu.
  12. "Purdue trustees confirm four distinguished professors". Purdue News (purdue.edu). July 9, 1999.
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