Kalman Laki (February 1, 1909 – February 12, 1983), sometimes referred to as Koloman Laki, was a Hungarian-American biochemist who contributed to the discovery of

factor XIII Factor XIII, or fibrin stabilizing factor, is a plasma protein and zymogen. It is activated by thrombin to factor XIIIa which crosslinks fibrin in coagulation. Deficiency of XIII worsens clot stability and increases bleeding tendency. Huma ...

. He was a scientist at the US

National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in 1887 and is part of the United States Department of Health and Human Service ...

(NIH).

Biography

Born in Szolnok, Hungary, Laki completed doctoral studies in chemistry at the

University of Szeged The University of Szeged () is a Public university, public research university in Szeged, Hungary. Established as the Jesuit Academy of Kolozsvár in present-day Cluj-Napoca in 1581, the institution was re-established as a university in 1872 by ...

before coming to the United States in 1947 as an NIH scientist. He was the chief of the

biophysical chemistry Biophysical chemistry is a physical science that uses the concepts of physics and physical chemistry for the study of biological systems. The most common feature of the research in this subject is to seek an explanation of the various phenomena ...

laboratory at the National Institute of Arthritis, Diabetes, Digestive and Kidney Diseases. In 1970, he became the head of a

physical biochemistry Physical biochemistry is a branch of biochemistry that deals with the theory, techniques, and methodology used to study the physical chemistry of biomolecules. It also deals with the mathematical approaches for the analysis of biochemical reactio ...

laboratory at the institute. Laki and biochemist

Laszlo Lorand Laszlo Lorand (23 March 1923 – 6 December 2018) was a Hungarian-American biochemist who studied clotting of blood and other bodily fluids. A professor emeritus in cell and molecular biology at the Feinberg School of Medicine, Lorand was a longt ...

(whom Laki had recruited to

Albert Szent-Györgyi Albert Imre Szent-Györgyi de Rapoltu Mare, Nagyrápolt (; September 16, 1893 – October 22, 1986) was a Hungarian biochemist who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1937. He is credited with first isolating vitamin C and disc ...

's laboratory when Lorand was a medical student) worked on biochemical research in

coagulation Coagulation, also known as clotting, is the process by which blood changes from a liquid to a gel, forming a thrombus, blood clot. It results in hemostasis, the cessation of blood loss from a damaged vessel, followed by repair. The process of co ...

. A substance they identified, initially named Laki–Lorand factor, became known as

. Laki was awarded an honorary medical degree from the

University of Debrecen The University of Debrecen ( ) is a university located in Debrecen, Hungary. It is the oldest continuously operating institution of higher education in Hungary ever since its establishment in 1538. The university has a well established progra ...

. Laki died at Fairfax Hospital in 1983. He had been in the hospital after minor surgery when he had a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when Ischemia, blood flow decreases or stops in one of the coronary arteries of the heart, causing infarction (tissue death) to the heart muscle. The most common symptom ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Laki, Kalman 1909 births 1983 deaths Hungarian biochemists National Institutes of Health people University of Szeged alumni Recipients of the Kossuth Prize Hungarian emigrants to the United States