Nobel Foundation

Nobel Media

Nobel Museum

Nobel Peace
Center

Nobel Web

SEARCH

CONTACT US

HOME

NOBEL
PRIZES

ALFRED
NOBEL

PRIZE AWARDERS

NOMINATION

PRIZE ANNOUNCEMENTS

AWARD CEREMONIES

EDUCATIONAL GAMES

By Year

Nobel
Prize in Physics

Nobel Prize in
Chemistry

Nobel Prize in Medicine

Nobel Prize in
Literature

Nobel
Peace Prize

Prize in Economics

Otto Warburg
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or
Medicine 1931

Biography

Otto Heinrich Warburg was born on October 8, 1883, in
Freiburg, Baden. His father, the physicist Emil Warburg, was President of the
Physikalische Reichsanstalt, Wirklicher Geheimer Oberregierungsrat. Otto studied
chemistry under the great Emil
Fischer, and gained the degree, Doctor of Chemistry (Berlin), in 1906. He
then studied under von Krehl and obtained the degree, Doctor of Medicine
(Heidelberg), in 1911. He served in the Prussian Horse Guards during World War
I. In 1918 he was appointed Professor at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for
Biology, Berlin-Dahlem. Since 1931 he is Director of the Kaiser Wilhelm
Institute for Cell Physiology, there, a donation of the Rockefeller Foundation
to the Kaiser Wilhelm Gesellschaft, founded the previous year.

Warburg's
early researches with Fischer were in the polypeptide field. At Heidelberg he
worked on the process of oxidation. His special interest in the investigation of
vital processes by physical and chemical methods led to attempts to relate these
processes to phenomena of the inorganic world. His methods involved detailed
studies on the assimilation of carbon dioxide in plants, the metabolism of
tumors, and the chemical constituent of the oxygen transferring respiratory
ferment. Warburg was never a teacher, and he has always been grateful for his
opportunities to devote his whole time to scientific research. His later
researches at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute have led to the discovery that the
flavins and the nicotinamide were the active groups of the hydrogen-transferring
enzymes. This, together with the iron-oxygenase discovered earlier, has given a
complete account of the oxidations and reductions in the living world. For his
discovery of the nature and mode of action of the respiratory enzyme, the Nobel
Prize has been awarded to him in 1931. This discovery has opened up new ways in
the fields of cellular metabolism and cellular respiration. He has shown, among
other things, that cancerous cells can live and develop, even in the absence of
oxygen.

In addition to many publications of a minor nature, Warburg is
the author of Stoffwechsel der Tumoren (1926), Katalytische Wirkungen
der lebendigen Substanz (1928), Schwermetalle als Wirkungsgruppen von
Fermenten (1946), Wasserstoffübertragende Fermente (1948),
Mechanism of Photosynthesis (1951), Entstehung der Krebszellen
(1955), and Weiterentwicklung der zellphysiologischen Methoden
(1962). In the last years he added to the problems of his Institute:
chemotherapeutics of cancer, and the mechanism of X-ray's action. In
photosynthesis he discovered with Dean Burk the I-quantum reaction that splits
the CO2, activated by the respiration.

Otto Warburg is a
Foreign Member of the Royal Society, London (1934) and a member of the Academies
of Berlin, Halle, Copenhagen, Rome, and India. He has gained l'Ordre pour le
Mérite, the Great Cross, and the Star and Shoulder Ribbon of the Bundesrepublik.
In 1965 he was made doctor honoris causa at Oxford University.

He is
unmarried and has always been interested in equine sport as a pastime.

From Nobel
Lectures, Physiology or Medicine 1922-1941, Elsevier Publishing Company,
Amsterdam, 1965

This autobiography/biography was first published in the book
series Les
Prix Nobel. It was later edited and republished in Nobel
Lectures. To cite this document, always state the source as shown
above.

Otto Warburg died on August 1, 1970.

Copyright © The Nobel Foundation 1931

Printer Friendly

Comments & Questions

Tell a Friend

The 1931 Prize in:

PhysicsChemistryMedicineLiteraturePeace

Prev. year

Next year

The
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1931

Presentation
Speech

Otto
Warburg

Biography

Nobel
Lecture

Documentary

Banquet
Speech

All Medicine Nobel Laureates

Who are the awarded women?

Dates for the 2008 Nobel Prizes

Sign up for News from Nobelprize.org

About
Nobelprize.org

Privacy
Policy

Terms of Use

Technical
Support

RSS

The Official Web Site of the Nobel Foundation

Copyright © Nobel
Web AB 2008