Famous People from Szeged: Albert Szent-Györgyi
Albert Szent-Györgyi de Nagyrápolt (September 16, 1893 - October 22, 1986) was a Hungarian biochemist who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1937. He is credited with first isolating vitamin C and discovering the components and reactions of the citric acid cycle.
The name of Albert Szent-Györgyi is known not only in Szeged, but also all over the world. However, Szeged is the city that can rightly be proud of the Hungarian biochemist, as he is the only one who was living and working in his motherland when received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
The onetime rector of the University of Szeged lived an active life, both his scientific career and private life had interesting turning points. The brief, non-exhaustive introduction of his meaningful and exciting life can hold stunning excitement for everybody.
Albert Szent-Györgyi was born on 16 September 1893 in Budapest, the capital of the Kingdom of Hungary. His father, Miklós Szent-Györgyi, was a landowner, born in Marosvásárhely, Transylvania (today Târgu Mureş, Romania), a Calvinist, and could trace his ancestry back to 1608 when Sámuel, a Calvinist predicant, was ennobled. His mother, Jozefina, a Roman Catholic, was a daughter of József Lenhossék and Anna Bossányi. Szent-Györgyi inherited his intelligence and curiosity for medicine from his mother, Jozefina. Her family included three generations of scientists. Music was also important in the Lenhossék family. His mother Jozefina prepared to become an opera singer and auditioned for Gustav Mahler, then a conductor at the Budapest Opera. He advised her to marry instead, since her voice was not enough. Szent-Györgyi himself was good at the piano, while his brother Pál became a professional violinist.
Szent-Györgyi's great-grandfather, Mihály Lenhossék, was a doctor, university professor and the Surgeon General of Hungary. His uncle, József Lenhossék, was also a doctor, professor of Anatomy, and anthropologist, who in 1873 became ordinary member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Family legend has it that he was the first person in Budapest to own a microscope. The young Albert was a bad student for a long time, so when he decided to continue his studies at the University of Medicine, his uncle prohibited it, as he was afraid that his nephew would bring shame on their family of doctors. As a testing, he had to do his first works on the rectum, under the instructions of his uncle, later he could study the eyes, then continued to work in the Physiology Institute.
Szent-Györgyi began his studies at the Semmelweis University, Budapest in 1911. His studies were interrupted in 1914 to serve as an army medic in the First World War. In 1916, disgusted with the war, he shot himself in the arm to be sent to hospital from the battlefield. He was then able to finish his medical education and received his MD in 1917. In the same year he married his first wife, Kornélia Demény, and in 1918 their daughter Nelli was born. In the years after the war, difficulties and hunger characterized his life. He visited several countries and finally on 26 October 1930 he returned to Hungary and settled in Szeged. With the support of the Rockefeller Foundation he created a modern, scientific center and biochemistry school in Szeged. He introduced a new educational style, unlike the regular rigid, authoritarian professors, he expected his student to debate, he invited them to his home, he went to the cinema and on trips with them. The polymath professor became an excellent role model for his students, he played tennis, rode horse, he learnt gliding, and lived an active life.
At the University of Szeged Szent-Györgyi and his research fellow Joseph Svirbely found that "hexuronic acid" was actually the thus far unidentified antiscorbutic factor, known as vitamin C. After Walter Norman Haworth had determined the structure of vitamin C, and in honour of its antiscorbutic properties, it was given the formal chemical name of L-ascorbic acid. In some experiments they used paprika as the source for their vitamin C. Also during this time, Szent-Györgyi continued his work on cellular respiration, identifying fumaric acid and other steps in what would become known as the Krebs cycle. In Szeged he also met Zoltán Bay, physicist, who became his personal friend and partner in research on matters of bio-physics.
In 1937 he received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for his discoveries in connection with the biological combustion process with special reference to vitamin C and the catalysis of fumaric acid". Albert Szent-Györgyi offered all of his Nobel prize money to Finland in 1940. (The Hungarian Volunteers in the Winter War traveled to fight for the Finns after the Soviet invasion of Finland in 1939.)
In 1938 he began work on the biophysics of muscle movement. He found that muscles contain actin, which when combined with the protein myosin and the energy source ATP, contract muscle fibers. In 1946, Albert received the Cameron Prize for Therapeutics of the University of Edinburgh.
In 1947 Szent-Györgyi established the Institute for Muscle Research at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts with financial support from Hungarian businessman Stephen Rath. However, Szent-Györgyi still faced funding difficulties for several years, due to his foreign status and former association with the government of a Communist nation. In 1948, he received a research position with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland and began dividing his time between there and Woods Hole. In 1950, grants from the Armour Meat Company and the American Heart Association allowed him to establish the Institute for Muscle Research.
During the 1950s Szent-Györgyi began using electron microscopes to study muscles at the subunit level. He received the Lasker Award in 1954. In 1955, he became a naturalized citizen of the United States. He was elected a Member of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) in 1956.
In the late 1950s, Szent-Györgyi developed a research interest in cancer and developed ideas on applying the theories of quantum mechanics to the biochemistry (quantum biology) of cancer. The death of Rath, who had acted as the financial administrator of the Institute for Muscle Research, left Szent-Györgyi in a financial mess. Szent-Györgyi refused to submit government grants which required him to provide minute details on exactly how he intended to spend the research dollars and what he expected to find. After Szent-Györgyi commented on his financial hardships in a 1971 newspaper interview, attorney Franklin Salisbury contacted him and later helped him establish a private nonprofit organization, the National Foundation for Cancer Research. Late in life, Szent-Györgyi began to pursue free radicals as a potential cause of cancer. NFCR is committed to upholding Dr. Szent-Györgyi's vision of curing cancer through innovation and collaboration. As part of this commitment, NFCR has established this prize to honor scientists who have made extraordinary progress in cancer research and to focus attention on the essential role of basic research in finding the still elusive answers to the mysteries of cancer.
Read the story of the discovery of actin:
Download some of Szent-Györgyi's works on fumaric acid, actin, and Vitamin C:
