German-born American biochemist. He won the Nobel Prize in Medicine for his work on the cholesterol mechanism and lipids.
He was born on January 21, 1912, in Neisse, Germany (now Nysa in Poland). After studying chemical engineering at Munich Technical School, he went to Switzerland and then to Columbia University in the USA. Bloch, who conducted research here with Rudolf Schoenheimer, received his doctorate in 1938.
He taught at the University of Chicago starting in 1946 and became a professor of biochemistry at Harvard University in 1954. He won many awards, apart from the 1964 Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology, which he shared with Lynen, and was accepted into the US Academy of Sciences.
Konrad Emil Bloch (21 January 1912 – 15 October 2000) was a German-American biochemist. Bloch received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1964 (joint with Feodor Lynen) for discoveries concerning the mechanism and regulation of the cholesterol and fatty acid metabolism.
One of Bloch's early works in biochemistry was the study of cell metabolism using substances labeled with isotopes of various elements, with Schoenheimer. Later, Bloch, who investigated unsaturated fatty acid compounds, started cholesterol biosynthesis studies with Rittenberg in 1942, Lynen and J.W. He continued with the contributions of Cornforth and G. Popjak. The structure of cholesterol, which is one of the basic elements of metabolism in animal cells and has a white waxy appearance, has been known for more than 3 years as a result of the studies of Wieland and especially Windaus, which started in the 1900s.
This substance, represented by the formula C27 H460, was one of the first steroids whose structure was analyzed together with cholic acid. Using this information, Bloch showed that two-carbon acetic acid was converted to cholesterol after more than 30 reaction steps. Most of the cholesterol whose biosynthesis is carried out in the liver is used in the production of bile acids, especially cholic acid, which are used in the body to digest fat. Cholesterol is also a factor in the production of hormones secreted by the adrenal gland, reproductive hormones, and vitamin D. Another discovery of Bloch regarding cholesterol is that this substance causes arteriosclerosis. This condition, which is seen as the thickening and hardening of the arterial walls and can lead to heart diseases, may occur as a result of an increase in the cholesterol ratio in the blood due to a diet based on excess fat or physiological reasons. Deciphering the structure and understanding of the biosynthesis of cholesterol, which can cause arteriosclerosis by accumulating in the form of plaques on the vessel walls, paved the way for treatment for this disease. Bloch's findings in this area also helped to analyze the structures of substances such as terpene and rubber.