Reinhold and Ruth Benesch

Reinhold Benesch (August 13, 1919 – December 30, 1986)

Reinhold Benesch was born in

Both Benesches earned their doctorates in biochemistry from Northwestern University, he in 1950, she in 1952. They began working at Columbia in 1960.^[2]

Their early work concerned sulfur in proteins and thiol groups.^[2] However, the bulk of their collaboration centered on hemoglobin. Of 125 scientific papers they published together, only 13 do not concern hemoglobin.^[4]

Their key discovery, in 1967, was that 2,3-bisphosphoglyceric acid was necessary for hemoglobin to transport oxygen throughout the human body through its role in loosening the bonds between hemoglobin and oxygen.^[1][3] This transformed how scientists viewed the oxygen transport system.^[2] Nobel laureate Max Perutz notes "that discovery opened a new era in the physiology of the respiratory carriage".^[4] The concentration of 2,3-bisphosphoglyceric acid in blood, 40 mg per 100 ml, had been known for many years,^[5] but it was not until the Benesches converted this concentration into modern units as 3.6–5.0 mM that its similarity to that of hemoglobin was noticed.

The Benesches also demonstrated that two types of protein chains,

After Reinhold's death in 1986, Ruth continued their work, until retiring in 1996. She died in 2000.[7]

References