Ralph F. Hirschmann, 19222009. A Perspective

摘要

Ralph F. Hirschmann, an organic chemist who bridged the chemistrybiology interface, died June 20, 2009 at his home in Pennsylvania. He was 87 years old. Recent graduate students reading this article might recall Ralph F. Hirschmann, Professor of Chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania, who was a major innovator in the field of peptide mimetics from 1987 to the present. Senior faculty might also know that Ralph Hirschmann was Senior Vice President for Research at Merck during the company’s most productive drug discovery era. Members of the general scientific community might remember that Ralph Hirschmann was awarded the National Medal of Science in 2000 by President of the United States Bill Clinton. But in its July 18 obituary for Ralph Hirschmann, the New York Times recalled him as “a leader of a team of biochemists that for the first time synthesized an enzyme, one of the master chemicals of life” and reprinted a photograph that was published in January 17, 1969 on the front page of that paper, titled “An Enzyme is Synthesized for the First Time”. The total synthesis of an enzyme certainly was a landmark achievement in organic chemistry and biochemistry. What is generally forgotten is that it was also an early example of what has now become known as chemical biology.