Gordon Hammes

Summary

Gordon G. Hammes (born 1934 in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin) is a distinguished service professor of biochemistry, emeritus, at Duke University, professor emeritus at Cornell University, and member of United States National Academy of Sciences. Hammes' research involves the study of enzyme mechanisms and enzyme regulation.[1]

Gordon Hammes
Born1934 (age 89–90)
NationalityAmerican
Alma materPrinceton University
Known forEnzyme kinetics and mechanism
AwardsMcKay Prize, ACS Award in Biological Chemistry
Scientific career
FieldsBiochemistry
InstitutionsDuke University

Early life and education edit

Hammes was born in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin in 1934. He earned his B.A. from Princeton University in 1956 and his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1959.[1]

Career edit

Hammes conducted postdoctoral research with Manfred Eigen at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen, Germany. He then secured a faculty position at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before moving to Cornell University in 1965, where he was professor and chair of the department of chemistry. At Cornell University, he was the Horace White Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, as well the director and co-founder of the Cornell University Biotechnology Program. He spent some time at the University of California, Santa Barbara as vice-chancellor for academic affairs, and then joined the biochemistry faculty at Duke University in 1991.[1] He served as vice chancellor of academic affairs at the Duke University Medical Center from 1991 through 1998.[2][3]

Hammes was editor-in-chief of the American Chemical Society journal Biochemistry from 1992 until 2003, and president of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology starting in 1994.[1][4] The Gordon Hammes ACS Biochemistry Lectureship was established in 2009 in order to honor significant contributions to the field of biochemistry.[5]

Rsearch papers edit

Dr. Hammes is a world leader in the field of enzyme mechanisms and regulation, starting with work with Eigen on the temperature-jump technique[6][7] and with Robert Alberty on relaxation spectra.[8] He studied the kinetic behavior of various enzymes, including glutamate-aspartate transaminase,[9][10] hexokinase,[11][12][13] and ribonuclease.[14] He developed new methodologies that allowed a better understanding of enzyme catalysis,[15] including fast reaction techniques,[6][7] fluorescence spectroscopy, and single molecule microscopy.[16][17] He was also one of the first to develop fluorescence energy transfer (FRET) as a technology to study distances between and within proteins.[17] His work revolutionized the understanding of conformational changes and multiple intermediates in enzyme catalysis. Dr. Hammes has published more than 250 scientific articles.

Books edit

Books written by Hammes include the following:

Thermodynamics and Kinetics for the Biological Sciences (2000)[18]
Spectroscopy for the Biological Sciences (2005)[19]
Physical Chemistry for the Biological Sciences (2015) with his daughter Sharon Hammes-Schiffer[20]

Awards and distinctions edit

  • 1956 – McKay Prize in Chemistry[1]
  • 1967 – American Chemical Society Award in Biological Chemistry[1]
  • 1967 – Eli Lilly Award in Biological Chemistry
  • 2002 – American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology William C. Rose Award[1]
  • 2008 – American Chemical Society Biochemistry Lectureship, Scholarship Award created in 2016
  • 2009 – Vallee Foundation board of directors

References edit

  1. ^ a b c d e f g "ASBMB Past Presidents". American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Retrieved 3 May 2012.
  2. ^ "Marchuk Selected for 2010 Gordon G. Hammes Faculty Teaching Award". Duke Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology. Archived from the original on 10 October 2011. Retrieved 3 May 2012.
  3. ^ "Guide to the Gordon G. Hammes Papers and Records, 1987–2008". Duke Medical Center Library & Archives. Retrieved 3 May 2012.
  4. ^ "Gordon Hammes". Naples Music Club. Retrieved 3 May 2012.
  5. ^ "Gordon Hammes ACS Biochemistry Lectureship" (PDF). American Chemical Society. Retrieved 3 May 2012.
  6. ^ a b Eigen, Manfred; Hammes, Gordon G. (1960). "Kinetic Studies of ADP Reactions with the Temperature Jump Method". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 82 (22): 5951–5952. doi:10.1021/ja01507a041.
  7. ^ a b Eigen, Manfred; Hammes, Gordon G. (1961). "Kinetic Studies of ADP Reactions with the Temperature Jump Method—Corrections". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 83 (12): 2786. doi:10.1021/ja01473a056.
  8. ^ Hammes, Gordon G.; Alberty, Robert A. (1960). "The Relaxation Spectra of Simple Enzymatic Mechanisms". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 82 (7): 1564–1569. doi:10.1021/ja01492a012.
  9. ^ Hammes, Gordon G.; Fasella, Paolo. (1962). "A Kinetic Study of Glutamic-Aspartic Transaminase". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 84 (24): 4644–4650. doi:10.1021/ja00883a006.
  10. ^ Fasella, Paolo; Giartosio, Anna; Hammes, Gordon G. (1966). "The Interaction of Aspartate Aminotransferase with α-Methylaspartic Acid". Biochemistry. 5 (1): 197–202. doi:10.1021/bi00865a026. PMID 5938937.
  11. ^ Hammes, Gordon G.; Kochavi, Daniel. (1962). "Studies of the Enzyme Hexokinase. I. Steady State Kinetics at pH 8". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 84 (11): 2069–2073. doi:10.1021/ja00870a012.
  12. ^ Hammes, Gordon G.; Kochavi, Daniel. (1962). "Studies of the Enzyme Hexokinase. II. Kinetic Inhibition by Products". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 84 (11): 2073–2076. doi:10.1021/ja00870a013.
  13. ^ Hammes, Gordon G.; Kochavi, Daniel. (1962). "Studies of the Enzyme Hexokinase. III. The Role of the Metal Ion". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 84 (11): 2076–2079. doi:10.1021/ja00870a014.
  14. ^ Cathou, Renata E.; Hammes, Gordon G. (1964). "Relaxation Spectra of Ribonuclease". Berichte der Bunsengesellschaft für Physikalische Chemie. 68 (8–9): 759–760. doi:10.1002/bbpc.19640680818.
  15. ^ Fasella, Paolo; Hammes, Gordon G.; Schimmel, Paul R. (1965). "A Sephadex dialysis method of determining small molecule-macromolecule binding constants". Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - Nucleic Acids and Protein Synthesis. 103 (4): 708–710. doi:10.1016/0005-2787(65)90094-8. PMID 5859855.
  16. ^ Smiley, R. D.; Collins, T. R. L.; Hammes, G. G.; Hsieh, T.-S. (2007). "Single-molecule measurements of the opening and closing of the DNA gate by eukaryotic topoisomerase II". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 104 (12): 4840–4845. Bibcode:2007PNAS..104.4840S. doi:10.1073/pnas.0700342104. PMC 1829226. PMID 17360343.
  17. ^ a b Antikainen, Nina M.; Smiley, R. Derike; Benkovic, Stephen J.; Hammes, Gordon G. (2005). "Conformation Coupled Enzyme Catalysis: Single-Molecule and Transient Kinetics Investigation of Dihydrofolate Reductase". Biochemistry. 44 (51): 16835–16843. doi:10.1021/bi051378i. PMID 16363797.
  18. ^ Hammes, Gordon G. (2000). Thermodynamics and Kinetics for the Biological Sciences. New York: Wiley-Interscience. ISBN 0-471-37491-1.
  19. ^ Hammes, Gordon G. (2005). Spectroscopy for the Biological Sciences. ISBN 978-0471713449.
  20. ^ Hammes, Gordon G.; Hammes-Schiffer, Sharon (2015). Physical Chemistry for the Biological Sciences. ISBN 978-1118859001.