William Wallace Cleland (January 6, 1930 – March 6, 2013, often cited as W. W. Cleland, and known almost universally as "Mo Cleland", was a

University of Wisconsin-Madison A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...

biochemistry professor. His research was concerned with

enzyme Enzymes () are proteins that act as biological catalysts by accelerating chemical reactions. The molecules upon which enzymes may act are called substrates, and the enzyme converts the substrates into different molecules known as products. A ...

reaction mechanism and enzyme kinetics,Academic home page
/ref> especially multiple-substrate enzymes. He was elected to the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

in 1985.

Life and education

Cleland was born in 1930 in

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

. He received his A.B. from

Oberlin College Oberlin College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college and conservatory of music in Oberlin, Ohio. It is the oldest Mixed-sex education, coeducational liberal arts college in the United S ...

in 1950 and his M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1953 and 1955, respectively.J. Biol. Chem. biographical article
/ref> He was an avid stamp collector and was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award in

Philately Philately (; ) is the study of postage stamps and postal history. It also refers to the collection and appreciation of stamps and other philatelic products. Philately involves more than just stamp collecting or the study of postage; it is poss ...

by the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

in 2008. Cleland died on March 6, 2013 after falling on ice.

Career

After carrying out postdoctoral research at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

he returned to University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he became Assistant Professor in 1959. In 1962 he was promoted to Associate Professor and then Professor in 1966. He became J. Johnson Professor of Biochemistry in 1978, and Steenbock Professor of Chemical Science in 1982. Kresge, Simoni and Hill have presented a general appreciation of Cleland's life and career.

Scientific contributions

Papers

Cleland's research focused on the use of enzyme kinetics to deduce enzyme mechanisms, especially those involved in phospho and acyl transfers. He pioneered the kinetic and mechanistic study of enzymes with more than one substrate, and he was probably the first to make a systematic classification of mechanisms and the corresponding kinetic equations. Building on this work he made kinetic studies of various enzymes, including isotope exchange of creatine kinase. Cleland was a pioneer in the use of computers to analyze enzyme kinetic data, and his Fortran programs that implement Wilkinson's analysis, which he distributed to anyone who requested them, were very influential. In the latter part of his career Cleland contributed greatly to studies of the use of kinetic isotope effects as a tool for elucidating mechanisms of enzyme catalysis. He was the first to use

dithiothreitol Dithiothreitol (DTT) is the common name for a small-molecule redox reagent also known as Cleland's reagent, after W. Wallace Cleland. DTT's formula is C4H10O2S2 and the chemical structure of one of its enantiomers in its reduced form is shown on ...

for the reduction of disulfide bonds in proteins, and the compound is accordingly often called Cleland's reagent.

Book

''Enzyme Kinetics and Mechanism'' (with P. F. Cook, 2007)

Awards and recognition

*1985 - Elected to the National Academy of Sciences *1986 - Fulbright Senior Scholar Award *1990 - Merck Award ( American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology) *1993 - Alfred Bader Award in Bioinorganic or Bioorganic Chemistry (

American Chemical Society The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a scientific society based in the United States that supports scientific inquiry in the field of chemistry. Founded in 1876 at New York University, the ACS currently has more than 155,000 members at all d ...

) *1995 -

Repligen Corporation Award in Chemistry of Biological Processes The Repligen Award in Chemistry of Biological Processes was established in 1985 and consists of a silver medal and honorarium. Its purpose is to acknowledge and encourage outstanding contributions to the understanding of the chemistry of biological ...

(Biological Chemistry Division of the American Chemical Society) *1999 - Stein and Moore Award (Protein Society) *2008 - Lifetime Achievement Award in

References

External links

Perry Allen Frey, "W. Wallace Cleland", Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences (2014)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cleland, W. Wallace 1930 births 2013 deaths Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences American biochemists Oberlin College alumni University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty