The Sir William Dunn Institute of Biochemistry at

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III of England, Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world' ...

was a research institute endowed from the estate of Sir William Dunn, which was the origin of the Cambridge Department of Biochemistry. Created for

Frederick Gowland Hopkins Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins (20 June 1861 – 16 May 1947) was an English biochemist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1929, with Christiaan Eijkman, for the discovery of vitamins, even though Casimir Funk, a Po ...

on the recommendation of

Walter Morley Fletcher Sir Walter Morley Fletcher, (21 July 1873 – 7 June 1933)- was a British physiologist and administrator. Fletcher graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded ...

, it opened in 1924 and spurred the growth of Hopkins's school of biochemistry. Hopkins's school dominated the discipline of biochemistry from the 1920s through the interwar years and was the source of many leaders of the next generation of biochemists, and the Dunn bequest inaugurated a period of rapid expansion for biochemistry.

Origin of the Institute

In 1918, a trustee of the estate of Sir William Dunn approached a Cambridge biologist,

William Bate Hardy Sir William Bate Hardy, FRS (6 April 1864 – 23 January 1934) was a British biologist and food scientist. The William Bate Hardy Prize is named in his honour. Life He was born in Erdington, a suburb of Birmingham, the son of William Hardy of ...

, about the possibility of putting some of Dunn's estate toward biomedical science research. Hardy referred the trustee ( Charles D. Seligman) to

, the secretary of the Medical Research Council. The Dunn estate, like much of the philanthropy world, was beginning to look more to "preventive" philanthropy (as opposed to direct aid to the needy) by sponsoring research institutions that could address social ills. Between 1919 and 1925, Fletcher convinced the Dunn trustees to put nearly half a million pounds toward biomedical research. Fletcher was a long-time friend and institutional ally of Frederick Gowland Hopkins, a pioneering biochemist who was trying to establish "general biochemistry" as a field distinct from either medical physiology or organic chemistry, more a part of biology than medicine. Fletcher lobbied for the Dunn estate to fund Hopkins's proposal, among the over 500 funding proposals submitted. By late 1919, Fletcher was negotiating for a considerable endowment that would allow Hopkins to create an institute solely devoted to biochemistry. The approval of this endowment, ultimately about 210,000 pounds, reversed the declining fortunes of Hopkins's research group, which had been suffering from lack of available academic positions, research space, and able students since

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. With funding in the works, Hopkins group expanded from 10 researchers in 1920 to 59 in 1925; in 1922 they began using endowment funds and in 1924 the Dunn Institute of Biochemistry opened. Hopkins became the first

Sir William Dunn Professor of Biochemistry The Sir William Dunn Professorship of Biochemistry is the senior professorship in biochemistry at the University of Cambridge. The position was established in 1914 by the trustees of the will of Sir William Dunn, banker, merchant and philanthropist ...

and head of the new University of Cambridge Department of Biochemistry, and he appointed researchers in a range of specialized fields covering the whole of what he considered the proper, broad domain of biochemistry.

Hopkins's school of biochemistry

Hopkins's school, housed in the Dunn Institute, was both productive and influential. Between World War I and

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, 40% of the papers in the ''

Biochemical Journal The ''Biochemical Journal'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal which covers all aspects of biochemistry, as well as cell and molecular biology. It is published by Portland Press and was established in 1906. History The journal was established ...

'' were authored by Hopkins and other Cambridge biochemists. Hopkins's program of "general biochemistry" was unique in having a stable institutional base (unlike in Germany, where there were only a scattered handful of biochemistry professorships) but not being dependent on a medical school (unlike the biochemistry and physiological chemistry departments in the United States). The Dunn Institute under Hopkins had another unusual feature for the time: Hopkins did not discriminate against hiring

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

scientists, unlike the large majority of American, British and German universities and medical schools. This may have helped Hopkins assemble such a strong group of researchers, since talented Jewish biochemists had few other options.Kornberg, ''For the Love of Enzymes'', pp. 312-313

Notes

References

*Kohler, Robert E. "Walter Fletcher, F. G. Hopkins, and the Dunn Institute of Biochemistry: A Case Study in the Patronage of Science". ''

Isis Isis (; ''Ēse''; ; Meroitic: ''Wos'' 'a''or ''Wusa''; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎, romanized: ʾs) was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kin ...

'', Vol. 69, No. 3 (1978), pp. 330–355. *Kohler, Robert E. ''From medical chemistry to biochemistry: The making of a biomedical discipline''. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1982. *Kornberg, Arthur. ''For the Love of Enzymes: The Odyssey of a Biochemist''. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1989. {{authority control Biochemistry research institutes Biological research institutes in the United Kingdom Biochemistry, Sir William Dunn Institute of 1924 establishments in England

Origin of the Institute

Hopkins's school of biochemistry

See also

Notes

References