Athel Cornish-Bowden (born 3 April 1943) is a British biochemist known for his numerous textbooks, particularly those on

enzyme kinetics Enzyme kinetics is the study of the rates of enzyme catalysis, enzyme-catalysed chemical reactions. In enzyme kinetics, the reaction rate is measured and the effects of varying the conditions of the reaction are investigated. Studying an enzyme' ...

and his work on

metabolic control analysis In biochemistry, metabolic control analysis (MCA) is a mathematical framework for describing Metabolic pathway, metabolic, Cell signaling#Signaling pathways, signaling, and genetic pathways. MCA quantifies how variables, such as fluxes and Chemi ...

Education and career

Athel Cornish-Bowden worked on

pepsin Pepsin is an endopeptidase that breaks down proteins into smaller peptides and amino acids. It is one of the main digestive enzymes in the digestive systems of humans and many other animals, where it helps digest the proteins in food. Pe ...

catalysis. This began a life long pursuit of work on enzyme catalysis and in later years work on the control of metabolism. More recently he has also turned his attention to work related to the origin and nature of life. He obtained his D.Phil. at Oxford with

Jeremy R. Knowles Jeremy Randall Knowles (28 April 1935 – 3 April 2008) was a professor of chemistry at Harvard University who served as dean of the Harvard University faculty of arts and sciences (FAS) from 1991 to 2002. He joined Harvard in 1974, received ...

, and carried out post-doctoral work at Berkeley with

Daniel E. Koshland Jr. Daniel Edward Koshland Jr. (March 30, 1920July 23, 2007) was an American biochemist. He reorganized the study of biology at the University of California, Berkeley, and was the editor of the leading U.S. science journal, ''Science'', from 1985 ...

Research

Cornish-Bowden has authored over 200 peer-reviewed papers and nine textbooks on topics related to enzyme kinetics, mathematics and historical perspectives in science. According to Google Scholar, the textbook ''Fundamentals of enzyme kinetics'' has been cited over 4000 times by secondary sources. Cornish-Bowden's research can be divided into three primary areas: Enzyme kinetics, metabolic control, done mainly in collaboration with Jannie Hofmeyr, and the origin of life. The following lists some of the topics and selected references to the work carried out and published by Cornish-Bowden: * Mechanisms of Pepsin Catalysis * Binding of ligands to Proteins * Kinetics of nitrite reductase * Kinetics of nitrate reductase * The evolution of macromolecules * Properties of multienzyme systems * The theory of self-organizing systems Additionally, Cornish-Bowden has published a number of history of science papers commemorating the lives and achievements of historical figures in enzymology. His current interests include the definition of life and the capacity for life to self-organize.

Major research contributions

Cornish-Bowden is most well known for his introduction of the direct-linear plot for estimating enzyme parameters, his work on hexokinase evolution and kinetics, and his insight into the control and regulation of metabolism.

Editorial and related work

Cornish-Bowden has participated on the editorial boards of various journals (the ''Biochemical Journal'', the ''Journal of Theoretical Biology'', FEBS Journal, ''BioSystems''), and has been active on International Committees. He was secretary (and later chair) of the

IUPAC The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC ) is an international federation of National Adhering Organizations working for the advancement of the chemical sciences, especially by developing nomenclature and terminology. It is ...

- IUBMB Joint Committee on Biochemical Nomenclature and in that capacity convened the committee that prepared the current IUBMB recommendations on enzyme kinetics. He also contributed to recommendations on biochemical thermodynamics, and to proposals for system representation of biochemical networks.

Books

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Honours

In 1992, and again in 1993, Cornish-Bowden was appointed to the honorary chair ''Hermann Niemeyer F.'' at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Chile. In 2003 he was elected corresponding member of the Chilean Academy of Sciences.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cornish-Bowden, Athel Systems biologists Theoretical biologists 1943 births Living people British biochemists Alumni of Wadham College, Oxford British textbook writers People from Ashburton, Devon