Severo Ochoa: Nobel Prize–Winning Biochemist
Severo Ochoa de Albornoz (24 September 1905 – 1 November 1993) was a Spanish-American physician and biochemist. He won the 1959 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine together with Arthur Kornberg for their discovery of the mechanisms in the biological synthesis of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA).
Early Life and Education
Ochoa was born in Luarca, Asturias, Spain, to Severo Manuel Ochoa, a lawyer and businessman, and Carmen de Albornoz. His father died when Ochoa was seven; he and his mother then moved to Málaga. His interest in biology was stimulated by the publications of Spanish neurologist Santiago Ramón y Cajal. In 1923, Ochoa entered the University of Madrid Medical School, hoping to work with Ramón y Cajal, but Ramón y Cajal had retired. He studied instead with father Pedro Arrupe and Juan Negrín, whose lectures and encouragement shaped his scientific direction.
Negrín encouraged Ochoa and fellow student José Valdecasas to isolate creatinine from urine. The two succeeded and developed a method to measure small levels of muscle creatinine. In the summer of 1927, Ochoa worked at the University of Glasgow with D. Noel Paton on creatine metabolism. Upon returning to Spain, he and Valdecasas published their findings in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, marking the beginning of his biochemistry career. He completed his undergraduate medical degree in the summer of 1929.
His creatine research led to an invitation to join Otto Meyerhof’s laboratory at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Biology in Berlin-Dahlem in 1929, where he met and interacted with Otto Heinrich Warburg, Carl Neuberg, Einar Lundsgaard, and Fritz Lipmann. Ochoa returned to Madrid in 1930 to complete his MD thesis, which he defended that year. In 1931, he married Carmen García Cobián. He then began postdoctoral study at the National Institute for Medical Research in London under Henry Hallett Dale, working on the enzyme glyoxalase and marking the beginning of his lifelong interest in enzymes.
Career and Achievements
In 1933, Ochoa returned to Madrid and began studying glycolysis in heart muscle. Within two years, he was offered the directorship of the Physiology Section in a newly created Institute for Medical Research at the University of Madrid Medical School. However, the Spanish Civil War erupted shortly after, and in September 1936 Ochoa and his wife left Spain for what he called the “wander years,” traveling through Germany, England, and ultimately to the United States over four years.
Ochoa returned to Meyerhof’s Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Biology, now in Heidelberg, where he found the laboratory transformed from classical physiology into one of the world’s foremost biochemical facilities focused on glycolysis and fermentation. From 1936 to 1938, he held various positions, including Guest Research Assistant at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute. From 1938 to 1941, he was Demonstrator and Nuffield Research Assistant at the University of Oxford.
Ochoa then moved to the United States, working at Washington University’s School of Medicine between 1940 and 1942. In 1942, he joined the New York University School of Medicine as a research associate in medicine, later becoming assistant professor of biochemistry (1945), professor of pharmacology (1946), professor of biochemistry (1954), and chair of the department of biochemistry. In 1956, he became an American citizen. He was elected to the United States National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1957, and to the American Philosophical Society in 1961.
Ochoa continued research on protein synthesis and replication of RNA viruses until 1985, when he returned to Spain as a science advisor. He received the U.S. National Medal of Science in 1978. Ochoa died in Madrid on 1 November 1993.
Awards and Honors
Ochoa received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1959 for his work on DNA synthesis. He was elected to the United States National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1957, and to the American Philosophical Society in 1961. In 1978, he received the U.S. National Medal of Science. After his death, the Centro de Biología Molecular at the Autonomous University of Madrid was named in his honor. A hospital in Leganés, Madrid, and the Madrid Metro station serving it bear his name. The asteroid 117435 Severochoa is also named in his honor. Spain’s General Post Office issued a €0.76 postage stamp honoring him in 2003, and the United States Postal Service issued a stamp in his honor in June 2011 as part of the American Scientists collection.
Additional Resources
For a more detailed account of Severo Ochoa’s life, research, and scientific contributions, readers are encouraged to consult Wikipedia and other biographical archives dedicated to his work in biochemistry and molecular biology.
