Robert A. Alberty

Robert Arnold Alberty
Robert Arnold Alberty
Born	21 June 1921; Winfield, Kansas, US
Died	18 January 2014 (aged 92); Cambridge, Massachusetts, US
Alma mater	University of Nebraska, University of Wisconsin–Madison
Known for	enzyme kinetics, biochemical thermodynamics
	Scientific career
Fields	Biophysical chemistry
Notable students	Gordon Hammes

Robert Arnold Alberty (1921–2014) was an American biophysical chemist, professor emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a member of the National Academy of Sciences.

Alberty earned bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Nebraska in 1943 and 1944, respectively, then a doctoral degree from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1947. For his work in the area of biochemical thermodynamics, Alberty was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1965. In 1968 he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.^[1] He was dean of the MIT School of Science between 1967-1982.

Alberty is also known for his textbooks on physical chemistry, which have gone through many editions. The first one, Physical Chemistry, co-authored with Farrington Daniels, was published in 1957. More recent books of the same title have been co-authored with Robert J. Silbey and Moungi G. Bawendi (2004). Other works include Thermodynamics of Biochemical Reactions (2003) and Biochemical Thermodynamics: Applications of Mathematica (Methods of Biochemical Analysis) (2006).

He died in Cambridge, Massachusetts, at the age of 92 on January 18, 2014.^[2] Towards the end of his life he wrote a short account of his life and scientific career.^[3]

Research

At the beginning of his career Alberty worked principally on aspects of electrophoresis in protein chemistry.^[4] After a period of 20 years away from academic research, when he had administrative responsibilities at MIT, together with work in the petroleum industry,^[3] he returned to biochemical research.

He became increasingly concerned with the kinetics and mechanisms of enzyme-catalysed reactions,^[5]^[6] initially studying fumarase in particular.^[6] He was among the first to consider the kinetics of reactions with more than one substrate,^[7] and in the years that followed there was hardly any aspect of enzyme kinetics he did not touch, his work including, for example, studies of pH,^[8] integrated rate equations,^[9] reversible reactions,^[9] effects of temperature,^[10] effects of buffers and inhibitors,^[11] and others.

Alberty's early interest in the ionization of adenosine phosphates^[12] and of thermodynamic aspects of biochemical reactions^[13] came to be his primary interest, and in his later years he had numerous publications on this topic, such as a compilation of the properties of ATP and related compounds.^[14] He worked with IUPAC on recommendations for presenting data for biochemical thermodynamics.^[15]

Although he was primarily concerned with single enzyme-catalysed reactions, Alberty also did some work with systems of more than one enzyme, such as the urea cycle.^[16]

References

^ "Book of Members, 1780-2010: Chapter A" (PDF). American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 6 April 2011.
^ Robert Alberty, professor emeritus of chemistry and former dean of science, dies at 92
^ ^a ^b Alberty, Robert A. (2010). "Brief Scientific Autobiography of Robert A. Alberty". The Journal of Physical Chemistry B. 114 (49): 16047–16050. doi:10.1021/jp103554e. PMID 21141926.
^ Alberty, Robert A.; Anderson, Elmer A.; Williams, J. W. (1948). "Homogenicity and the Electrophoretic Behavior of Some Proteins". The Journal of Physical and Colloid Chemistry. 52 (1): 217–230. doi:10.1021/j150457a018. PMID 18918870.
^ Alberty, Robert A. (1953). "The Relationship between Michaelis Constants, Maximum Velocities and the Equilibrium Constant for an Enzyme-catalyzed Reaction". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 75 (8): 1928–1932. doi:10.1021/ja01104a045.
^ ^a ^b Bock, Robert M.; Alberty, Robert A. (1953). "Studies of the Enzyme Fumarase. I. Kinetics and Equilibrium". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 75 (8): 1921–1925. doi:10.1021/ja01104a043.
^ Alberty, Robert A. (1958). "On the Determination of Rate Constants for Coenzyme Mechanisms1". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 80 (8): 1777–1782. doi:10.1021/ja01541a001.
^ Alberty, Robert A.; Massey, Vincent (1954). "On the interpretation of the pH variation of the maximum initial velocity of an enzyme-catalyzed reaction". Biochimica et Biophysica Acta. 13 (3): 347–353. doi:10.1016/0006-3002(54)90340-6. PMID 13140346.
^ ^a ^b Alberty, Robert A.; Koerber, Barbara M. (1957). "Studies of the Enzyme Fumarase. VII.1 Series Solutions of Integrated Rate Equations for Irreversible and Reversible Michaelis-Menten Mechanisms2". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 79 (24): 6379–6382. doi:10.1021/ja01581a011.
^ Brant, David A.; Barnett, Lewis B.; Alberty, Robert A. (1963). "The Temperature Dependence of the Steady State Kinetic Parameters of the Fumarase Reaction". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 85 (15): 2204–2209. doi:10.1021/ja00898a003.
^ Alberty, R. A.; Bock, R. M. (1953). "Alteration of the Kinetic Properties of an Enzyme by the Binding of Buffer, Inhibitor, or Substrate". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 39 (9): 895–900. Bibcode:1953PNAS...39..895A. doi:10.1073/pnas.39.9.895. PMC 1063877. PMID 16589350.
^ Alberty, R A; smith, R M; Bock, R M (1951). "The apparent ionization constants of the adenosine phosphates and related compounds". J. Biol. Chem. 193 (1): 425–434. doi:10.1016/S0021-9258(19)52468-1. PMID 14907730.
^ Alberty, R A (1969). "Standard Gibbs free energy, enthalpy, and entropy changes as a function of pH and pMg for several reactions involving adenosine phosphates". J. Biol. Chem. 244 (12): 3290–3302. doi:10.1016/S0021-9258(18)93127-3. PMID 4307313.
^ Alberty, Robert A.; Goldberg, Robert N. (1992). "Standard thermodynamic formation properties for the adenosine 5'-triphosphate series". Biochemistry. 31 (43): 10610–10615. doi:10.1021/bi00158a025. PMID 1420176.
^ Alberty, Robert A.; Cornish-Bowden, Athel; Goldberg, Robert N.; Hammes, Gordon G.; Tipton, Keith; Westerhoff, Hans V. (2011). "Recommendations for terminology and databases for biochemical thermodynamics". Biophysical Chemistry. 155 (2–3): 89–103. doi:10.1016/j.bpc.2011.03.007. PMID 21501921.
^ Alberty, R.A. (1997). "Constraints and missing reactions in the urea cycle". Biophysical Journal. 72 (5): 2349–2356. Bibcode:1997BpJ....72.2349A. doi:10.1016/S0006-3495(97)78879-9. PMC 1184430. PMID 9129838.

External links

Robert A. Alberty Papers, MC-0681. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Distinctive Collections, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Faculty web page at MIT