Thomas Burr Osborne (August 5, 1859 – January 29, 1929) was a

biochemist Biochemists are scientists who are trained in biochemistry. They study chemical processes and chemical transformations in living organisms. Biochemists study DNA, proteins and Cell (biology), cell parts. The word "biochemist" is a portmanteau of ...

who, with

Lafayette Mendel Lafayette Benedict Mendel (February 5, 1872 – December 9, 1935) was an American biochemist known for his work in nutrition, with longtime collaborator Thomas B. Osborne, including the study of Vitamin A, Vitamin B, lysine and tryptophan. ...

, independently discovered

Vitamin A Vitamin A is a fat-soluble vitamin and an essential nutrient for humans. It is a group of organic compounds that includes retinol, retinal (also known as retinaldehyde), retinoic acid, and several provitamin A carotenoids (most notably bet ...

, though

Elmer McCollum Elmer Verner McCollum (March 3, 1879 – November 15, 1967) was an American biochemist known for his work on the influence of diet on health.Kruse, 1961. McCollum is also remembered for starting the first rat colony in the United States to be us ...

and

Marguerite Davis Marguerite Davis (September 16, 1887 – September 19, 1967) was an American biochemist, co-discoverer of vitamins A and B with Elmer Verner McCollum in 1913. Their research greatly influenced later research on nutrition. Personal life Davis ...

were ultimately given credit, as they had submitted their paper first by three weeks. He is known for his work isolating and characterizing seed proteins, and for determining protein nutritional requirements. His career was spent at the

Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station (CAES) is the Connecticut state government's agricultural experiment station, a state government component that engages in scientific research and public outreach in agriculture and related fields. I ...

Biography

Thomas Burr Osborne was born in

New Haven, Connecticut New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,02 ...

on August 5, 1859. He was the son of lawyer Arthur Dimon Osborne and the grandson of US Representative Thomas Burr Osborne. He earned an undergraduate degree from

Yale College Yale College is the undergraduate college of Yale University. Founded in 1701, it is the original school of the university. Although other Yale schools were founded as early as 1810, all of Yale was officially known as Yale College until 1887, ...

in 1881, and a PhD in chemistry there in 1885. He married Elizabeth Annah Johnson on June 23, 1886, and they had one son. Osborne died at his home in New Haven on January 29, 1929.

Career

His life exhibited "a single purpose, the understanding of the relationships of

protein Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including catalysing metabolic reactions, DNA replication, respo ...

s to each other and the animal world. He began his researches upon vegetable proteins in 1888,..." He published his findings in ''The Vegetable Proteins'' in 1909. Osborne realized the

polypeptide Peptides (, ) are short chains of amino acids linked by peptide bonds. Long chains of amino acids are called proteins. Chains of fewer than twenty amino acids are called oligopeptides, and include dipeptides, tripeptides, and tetrapeptides. A p ...

structure of proteins: "The nature of proteins in seeds was greatly elucidated in the opening years of the 20th century by T.B. Osborne, who developed methods for their isolation and purification, by means of which he discovered the chemical differences in proteins of various plants. His work revealed an imposing number of vegetable proteins. Osborne considered that the amino acids are for the most part united in the protein molecule in polypeptide union; that is, by the union of the NH₂ of one amino acid with the carboxyl group of another."

The American chemist Thomas B. Osborne was (viewed retropectively) head and shoulders above most of his contemporaries: compulsive attention to meticulous purification, reproducibility, error analysis, etc. shine through all his work. Although most of his work was carried out on seed proteins ... his results had far-reaching significance.

Osborne wrote over 100 papers with longtime collaborator

. Both were appointees of the

. In their early work, they studied the deadly poison

ricin Ricin ( ) is a lectin (a carbohydrate-binding protein) and a highly potent toxin produced in the seeds of the castor oil plant, ''Ricinus communis''. The median lethal dose (LD50) of ricin for mice is around 22 micrograms per kilogram of body ...

which is classified as a type 2

ribosome inactivating protein A ribosome-inactivating protein (RIP) is a protein synthesis inhibitor that acts at the eukaryotic ribosome. This protein family describes a large family of such proteins that work by acting as rRNA N-glycosylase (EC 3.2.2.22). They inactivate 6 ...

(RIP) from

castor beans ''Ricinus communis'', the castor bean or castor oil plant, is a species of perennial flowering plant in the Euphorbia, spurge family, Euphorbiaceae. It is the sole species in the monotypic genus, ''Ricinus'', and subtribe, Ricininae. The evolu ...

. In 1909, Osborne and Mendel's work found what

amino acid Amino acids are organic compounds that contain both amino and carboxylic acid functional groups. Although hundreds of amino acids exist in nature, by far the most important are the alpha-amino acids, which comprise proteins. Only 22 alpha am ...

s are necessary for the survival of the

laboratory rat A laboratory rat or lab rat is a brown rat of the subspecies '' Rattus norvegicus domestica'' which is bred and kept for scientific research. While less commonly used for research than mice (see laboratory mouse), rats have served as an importa ...

. At the Connecticut experimental station they developed a lab with about 200 rats whose dietary intake was carefully controlled. Their studies on rats revealed the necessary elements in a healthy diet. The program was described by J.R. Lindsey and H.J. Baker: :The striking differences in amino acid composition of plant proteins, which had been documented by Osborne, suggested that possible differences might exist in their biological value. The nutritive values of various purified proteins from cereal grains and other plant sources were compared for growth and maintenance in rats. This led to supplementation of "incomplete proteins" with those amino acids limiting each foodstuff's "biological quality" (e.g. Tryptophan and lysine).

Casein Casein ( , from Latin ''caseus'' "cheese") is a family of related phosphoproteins (CSN1S1, αS1, aS2, CSN2, β, K-casein, κ) that are commonly found in mammalian milk, comprising about 80% of the proteins in cow's milk and between 20% and 60% of ...

was found to be a "complete protein", thus paving the way for the use of this protein in modern rat diets. Within a few years it was possible to list the "essential" and "nonessential" amino acids. The science of

nutrition Nutrition is the biochemical and physiological process by which an organism uses food to support its life. It provides organisms with nutrients, which can be metabolized to create energy and chemical structures. Failure to obtain sufficient n ...

thus evolved beyond the caloric energy of food, turning to the structural issue of

essential amino acid An essential amino acid, or indispensable amino acid, is an amino acid that cannot be synthesized from scratch by the organism fast enough to supply its demand, and must therefore come from the diet. Of the 21 amino acids common to all life form ...

Vitamin A discovery

Osborne and Mendel discovered

in 1913 in butter fat – independently discovered by

and

, who submitted their publication first, with both papers appearing in the same issue of the ''

Journal of Biological Chemistry The ''Journal of Biological Chemistry'' (''JBC'') is a weekly peer-reviewed scientific journal that was established in 1905., jbc.org Since 1925, it is published by the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. It covers research in ...

''. Osborne and Mendel showed, for example, that a lack of Vitamin A in the diet led to

xerophthalmia Xerophthalmia (from Ancient Greek "xērós" (ξηρός) meaning "dry" and "ophthalmos" (οφθαλμός) meaning "eye") is a medical condition in which the eye fails to produce tears. It may be caused by vitamin A deficiency, which is someti ...

. They also established the importance of

lysine Lysine (symbol Lys or K) is an α-amino acid that is a precursor to many proteins. It contains an α-amino group (which is in the protonated form under biological conditions), an α-carboxylic acid group (which is in the deprotonated −C ...

and

tryptophan Tryptophan (symbol Trp or W) is an α-amino acid that is used in the biosynthesis of proteins. Tryptophan contains an α-amino group, an α- carboxylic acid group, and a side chain indole, making it a polar molecule with a non-polar aromatic ...

in a healthy diet."Lafayette Benedict Mendel" in ''"Dictionary of American Biography'', Supplements 1-2: To 1940.

American Council of Learned Societies American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

, 1944-1958. Reproduced at Biography Resource Center, Farmington Hills, Michigan: Thomson Gale. 2007. "Water-soluble vitamin B" found in "protein-free milk" was also shown to be an essential nutrient.L.B. Mendel
from

Encyclopedia.com Encyclopedia.com (also known as HighBeam Encyclopedia) is an online encyclopedia. It aggregates information from other published dictionaries, encyclopedias and reference works including pictures and videos. History The website was launched by ...

Works

* 1894: "The Proteids of the Kidney Bean", ''

Journal of the American Chemical Society The ''Journal of the American Chemical Society'' is a weekly peer-reviewed scientific journal that was established in 1879 by the American Chemical Society. The journal has absorbed two other publications in its history, the ''Journal of Analytical ...

'' 16(10): 703–712, * 1902: "Sulfur in protein bodies", ''Journal of the American Chemical Society'' 25: 323 to 53 * 1907
''The Proteins of the Wheat Kernel''

Carnegie Institution of Washington The Carnegie Institution of Washington (the organization's legal name), known also for public purposes as the Carnegie Institution for Science (CIS), is an organization in the United States established to fund and perform scientific research. Th ...

via archive.org * 1909
''The Vegetable Proteins''
from

archive.org The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

* 1916: (with L. B. Mendel) "The Growth of Rats upon Diets of Isolated Food Substances", ''

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 ...

'' 10:534–8 . * 1917: (with L. B. Mendel) "The Relative Value of Certain Proteins and Protein Content Supplements to Corn Gluten", ''

'' 29:69–92. * 1924
''The Vegetable Proteins'', second edition
via Internet Archive

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Osborne, Thomas Burr 1859 births 1929 deaths American biochemists Vitamin researchers Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni