Bernard Horecker

Bernard Leonard (Bernie) Horecker (1914–2010)

was an American biochemist known for work on the Bernard Horecker
pentose phosphate pathway, and for cellular regulation
in general.

Birth and education

Bernard Horecker was born in Chicago on 31 October
1914. He studied at the University of Chicago and
obtained his Ph.D. there in 1939. Laureate honoris
causa in Biological Sciences, University of Urbino,
Italy, 1982.

Career Horecker in 1966

Born Bernard Leonard Horecker
31 October 1914[1]
Principal positions Chicago, Illinois, USA[1]

Starting as a biochemist at the United States Public Died 10 October 2010 (aged 95)[1]
Health Service at the National Institutes of Health, Fort Myers, Florida, USA[1]
Bethesda, Maryland from 1941 to 1959, Horecker Education University of Chicago (Ph.D.
moved to the New York University Grossman School 1939)[1]
of Medicine, until 1963, then at the Albert Einstein Known for Elucidating the pentose
College of Medicine and the Roche Institute of phosphate pathway, Current
Molecular Biology in Nutley, New Jersey and finally at Topics in Cellular Regulation
Cornell University.[1] (founding editor)
Parents Paul Horecker (father)
Visiting positions Bessie (Bornstein) Horecker
He was a visiting professor of biochemistry at the (mother)
University of California in 1954, and a guest research Scientific career
worker at the Pasteur Institute, Paris, 1957-1958. Later
Fields Biochemistry
he had many visiting appointments, both in USA and
Institutions National institutes of Health, New
in other countries, including Paraná (Brazil), Kyoto
York University Grossman
(Japan), Ferrara (Italy), and Rotterdam (The
School of Medicine, Albert
Netherlands).[1]
Einstein College of Medicine,
Roche Institute of Molecular
Editorial work Biology, Cornell University[1]
Horecker was (with Earl Stadtman) founding editor of Doctoral Thorfin R. Hogness[2]
Current Topics in Cellular Regulation, a major series advisor
in the subject, and continued in the role up to volume Doctoral J. Edwin Seegmiller
23 (1984).[1] students

Research
According to Kresge and colleagues[2] Horecker "made seminal contributions to our understanding of the
enzyme-catalyzed reactions in carbohydrate metabolism, especially those of the pentose phosphate
pathway." He started his scientific career with a manometric study of succinate dehydrogenase.[3] Later
he worked with Arthur Kornberg on spectroscopic aspects of pyridine nucleotides,[4] with whom he also
studied glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase.[5] However, he is best known for his work in elucidating the
pentose phosphate pathway.[6] [7] Much of his work, especially of the enzymes on aldolase and
transaldolase was done in collaboration with Sandro Pontremoli at the University of Genoa.

Horecker published many papers, of which Web of Science [8] lists 450, many of them highly cited. The
breadth of his work can be judged from papers on a wide variety of topics, such as galactose oxidase,[9]
metabolic formation of phosphglycerate,[10] protein kinase-C,[11] release of alkaline phosphatase from
bacterial cells[12] and prothymosin-α.[13]

Awards
Horecker was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1961, and received many other awards,
including the presidency of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (at the time
the American Society of Biological Chemists), and was the first recipient of its Merck Award in 1981. In
1952 he received the Paul Lewis Award in Enzyme Chemistry (now the Pfizer Award in Enzyme
Chemistry) from the Division of Biological Chemistry of the American Chemical Society.[1][2]

Horecker was twice nominated for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry,[14] by Leopold Ružička in 1957, and by
Felix Haurowitz in 1961.[1][2][15]

Death and family

Bernard Horecker died in Fort Myers, Florida, in 2010, survived by his widow Frances (Goldstein)
Horecker.

References
1. "National Academy of Sciences: Bernard Leonard Horecker" ([Link]
mber-directory›deceased-members›[Link]) (PDF). Retrieved 6 October
2023.
2. Kresge, Nicole; Simoni, Robert D.; Hill, Robert L. (2005). "Bernard L. Horecker's
Contributions to Elucidating the Pentose Phosphate Pathway". J. Biol. Chem. 280 (29):
E26 – E27.
 3. Horecker, B. L.; Stotz, E.; Hogness, T. R. (1939). "The promoting effect of aluminum,
chromium, and the rare earths in the succinic dehydrogenase-cytochrome system" ([Link]
[Link]/10.1016%2FS0021-9258%2818%2973748-4). J. Biol. Chem. 128 (1): 251–256.
doi:10.1016/S0021-9258(18)73748-4 ([Link]
748-4).
4. Horecker, B. L.; Kornberg, A. (1948). "The extinction coefficients of the reduced band of
pyridine nucleotides" ([Link] J. Biol.
Chem. 175 (1): 385–390. doi:10.1016/S0021-9258(18)57268-9 ([Link]
S0021-9258%2818%2957268-9). PMID 18873313 ([Link]
13).
5. Kornberg, A.; Horecker, B. L.; Smyrniotis, P. Z. (1955). Glucose-6-phosphate
dehydrogenase — 6-phosphogluconic dehydrogenase. Methods Enzymol. Vol. 1. pp. 323–
327. doi:10.1016/0076-6879(55)01046-X ([Link]
01046-X). ISBN 9780121818012.
6. Horecker, B. L.; Smyrniotis, P. Z.; Seegmiller, J. E. (1951). "The enzymatic conversion of 6-
phosphogluconate to ribulose-5-phosphate and ribose-5-phosphate" ([Link]
6%2FS0021-9258%2819%2952464-4). J. Biol. Chem. 193 (1): 383–396.
doi:10.1016/S0021-9258(19)52464-4 ([Link]
464-4). PMID 14907726 ([Link]
7. Horecker, Bernard L. (2002). "The pentose phosphate pathway" ([Link]
jbc.X200007200). J. Biol. Chem. 277 (50): 47965–47971. doi:10.1074/jbc.X200007200 (http
s://[Link]/10.1074%2Fjbc.X200007200). PMID 12403765 ([Link]
12403765).
8. "Web of Science" ([Link]
9. Avigad, G.; Asensio, C.; Horecker, B. L.; Amaral, D. (1962). "d-Galactose oxidase of
Polyporus circinatus" ([Link] J. Biol.
Chem. 237 (9): 2736–2743. doi:10.1016/S0021-9258(18)60220-0 ([Link]
2FS0021-9258%2818%2960220-0). PMID 13863403 ([Link]
3403).
10. Weissbach, A.; Horecker, B. L.; Hurwitz, J. (1956). "Enzymatic formation of phosphoglyceric
acid from ribulose diphosphate and carbon dioxide" ([Link]
8%2818%2965843-0). J. Biol. Chem. 218 (2): 795–810. doi:10.1016/S0021-9258(18)65843-
0 ([Link] PMID 13295231 ([Link]
[Link]/13295231).
11. Melloni, E.; Pontremoli, S.; Michetti, M.; Sacco, O.; Sparatore, B.; Salamino, F.; Horecker, B.
L. (1984). "Binding of protein kinase-C to neutrophil membranes in the presence of Ca2+
and its activation by a Ca2+-requiring proteinase" ([Link]
PMC390731). Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 82 (19): 6435–6439.
doi:10.1073/pnas.82.19.6435 ([Link] PMC 390731
([Link] PMID 2995965 ([Link]
[Link]/2995965).
12. Malamy, M. H; Horecker, B. L. (1964). "Release of alkaline phosphatase from cells of
Escherichia coli upon lysozyme spheroplast formation". Biochemistry. 3I (12): 1889–1893.
doi:10.1021/bi00900a017 ([Link] PMID 14269305 (http
s://[Link]/14269305).
13. Haritos, A. A.; Goodall, G. J.; Horecker, B. L. 10.1073/pnas.81.4.1008 (1984). "Prothymosin-
α — isolation and properties of the major immunoreactive form of thymosin-α1 in rat thymus"
([Link] Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 81 (4):
1008–1011. Bibcode:1984PNAS...81.1008H ([Link]
S...81.1008H). doi:10.1073/pnas.81.4.1008 ([Link]
PMC 344752 ([Link] PMID 6583693 (http
s://[Link]/6583693).
14. "Nomination archive" ([Link]
10841). Retrieved 8 October 2023.
15. Information about nominations is not published by the Nobel Foundation until 50 years have
elapsed after the nomination, so there is no information available about any nominations
that may have been made since 1973.

Retrieved from "[Link]