Norman Wingate Pirie FRS (1 July 1907 – 29 March 1997), was a British

biochemist Biochemists are scientists who are trained in biochemistry. They study chemical processes and chemical transformations in living organisms. Biochemists study DNA, proteins and Cell (biology), cell parts. The word "biochemist" is a portmanteau of ...

and virologist who, along with Frederick Bawden, discovered that a virus can be crystallized by isolating tomato bushy stunt virus in 1936. This was an important milestone in understanding

DNA Deoxyribonucleic acid (; DNA) is a polymer composed of two polynucleotide chains that coil around each other to form a double helix. The polymer carries genetic instructions for the development, functioning, growth and reproduction of al ...

and

RNA Ribonucleic acid (RNA) is a polymeric molecule that is essential for most biological functions, either by performing the function itself (non-coding RNA) or by forming a template for the production of proteins (messenger RNA). RNA and deoxyrib ...

Early and personal life

Pirie was born in Easebourne, near Midhurst in West Sussex, the youngest of three children of Sir George Pirie, a Scottish painter, and his wife while they were on a visit to England. He was raised near

Torrance, East Dunbartonshire Torrance is a village in East Dunbartonshire, formerly Stirlingshire, Scotland, located north of Glasgow city centre. Torrance used to mainly consist of farmland. The village was once known as a resting place for workers on their way to the Ca ...

. He developed a stammer, and was educated by private tutors and then spent periods at Kelvinside Academy in Glasgow, Harriston School near Dumfries, and Hastings Grammar School, and then from 1921 to 1925 at Rydal School in Colwyn Bay. He studied natural sciences (biochemistry) at Emmanuel College, Cambridge from 1925 to 1929, and became a demonstrator after graduating. He married fellow biochemist Antoinette Patey in 1931. They had a son and a daughter.David F. Smith, ‘Pirie, Norman Wingate ill(1907–1997)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Oct 200
accessed 23 Dec 2013
/ref> Like his wife, he was an atheist, and was concerned about nuclear weapons. He served as chairman of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) scientific committee for several years. His wife died in 1991. He died in Harpenden in 1997, survived by his two children.

Career

He worked at

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

until 1940, working with Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins. From 1932, he worked with Ashley Miles on the ''

Brucella ''Brucella'' is a genus of Gram-negative bacterium, bacteria, named after David Bruce (microbiologist), David Bruce (1855–1931). They are small (0.5 to 0.7 by 0.6 to 1.5 μm), non-Bacterial capsule, encapsulated, non-motile, facultatively ...

'' bacteria responsible for

brucellosis Brucellosis is a zoonosis spread primarily via ingestion of raw milk, unpasteurized milk from infected animals. It is also known as undulant fever, Malta fever, and Mediterranean fever. The bacteria causing this disease, ''Brucella'', are small ...

, and with Frederick Bawden on potato viruses. They studied the

tobacco mosaic virus Tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) is a positive-sense single-stranded RNA virus species in the genus '' Tobamovirus'' that infects a wide range of plants, especially tobacco and other members of the family Solanaceae. The infection causes characteris ...

, demonstrating that the virus contained

ribonucleic acid Ribonucleic acid (RNA) is a polymeric molecule that is essential for most biological functions, either by performing the function itself (non-coding RNA) or by forming a template for the production of proteins ( messenger RNA). RNA and deoxyr ...

(when others claimed they were just proteins). Bawden moved to

Rothamsted Experimental Station Rothamsted Research, previously known as the Rothamsted Experimental Station and then the Institute of Arable Crops Research, is one of the oldest agricultural research institutions in the world, having been founded in 1843. It is located at Harp ...

in Harpenden in 1936, and Pirie also moved to Rothamsted as a virus physiologist in 1940, becoming head of the

biochemistry Biochemistry, or biological chemistry, is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology, a ...

department from 1947 until 1973. During the Second World War, Pirie investigated the possibility of extracting edible proteins from leaves. Experiments on extracting edible leaf proteins continued into the 1970s. He was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the Fellows of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

in 1949, delivered its Leeuwenhoek Lecture in 1963 and won its

Copley Medal The Copley Medal is the most prestigious award of the Royal Society of the United Kingdom, conferred "for sustained, outstanding achievements in any field of science". The award alternates between the physical sciences or mathematics and the bio ...

in 1971 for his virology work. He retired in 1972, but continued work on beta carotene in leaf proteins, and the use of leaf proteins in new foods for humans.

Publications

Pirie was the author of over 200 scientific publications and book chapters. He continued to publish well into his retirement. His publications include: * Pirie, N. W. 1994. The bulk extraction and quality of leaf protein in: Linskens, H-F. and Jackson, J. F. (ed.) ''Modern methods of plant analysis: vegetables and vegetable products'' Springer-Verlag, Berlin. * Pirie, N. W. 1987. An economical unit for pressing juice from fibrous pulps. ''Journal of Agricultural Engineering Research'' 38 pp. 217-222. * Pirie, N. W. 1983
New foods - proving leaf proteins worth.
''Nature'' 301 (5895) pp. 20-20. * Pirie, N. W. 1969
The production and use of leaf protein.
''Proceedings of the Nutrition Society'' 28 (1) pp. 85-91. * Bawden, F. C. and Pirie, N. W. 1959
The infectivity and inactivation of nucleic acid preparations from tobacco mosaic virus.
''Journal of General Microbiology'' 21 (2) pp. 438-456. * Bawden, F. C. and Pirie, N. W. 1943
Methods for the purification of tomato bushy stunt and tobacco mosaic viruses.
''Biochemical Journal'' 37 (1) pp. 66-70. * Bawden, F. C., Pirie, N. W., Bernal, J. D. and Fankuchen, I. 1936
Liquid crystalline substances from virus-infected plants.
''Nature.'' 138 pp. 1051-1052

References

External links

Royal society
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pirie, Norman 1907 births 1997 deaths Scottish biochemists People educated at Kelvinside Academy People educated at Hastings Grammar School People educated at Rydal Penrhos Alumni of Emmanuel College, Cambridge Fellows of the Royal Society Recipients of the Copley Medal British atheists British virologists People from Torrance, East Dunbartonshire People from Easebourne