Protein Synthesis in Vitro. How did It All Start?

Abstract

The interest that Paul Zamecnik developed for protein synthesis derived — according to his own statement — from his involvement, in 1938, at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, with a grotesquely fat female patient, admitted to the clinic in order to shed pounds through controlled dieting. The woman died after only a few days of treatment, leaving open to conjectures the real reason of her death: perhaps excess fat, ... maybe a dearth of muscles? Muscles! Proteins! But how in this world were proteins synthesized? Fritz Lipmann, working one floor below, was the one who was dedicated to the synthesis of fats, his work would make him a Nobel laureate in 1953.