Karl August Folkers (September 1, 1906 – December 7, 1997) was an American biochemist who made major contributions to the isolation and identification of bioactive natural products.

Career

Folkers graduated from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univer ...

in 1928. In 1986, the institution awarded him its Alumni Achievement Award. His career was mainly spent at Merck. He played a prominent role in the isolation of vitamin B₁₂ in 1947, which is one of the most structural complex of the vitamins. As a Merck Pharmaceuticals research team, Folkers, Fern P. Rathe, and Edward Anthony Kaczka were the first to isolate the antibiotic

cathomycin Novobiocin, also known as albamycin or cathomycin, is an aminocoumarin antibiotic that is produced by the actinomycete '' Streptomyces niveus'', which has recently been identified as a subjective synonym for ''S. spheroides'' a member of the clas ...

in 1955. His team also isolated the antibiotic

cycloserine Cycloserine, sold under the brand name Seromycin, is a GABA transaminase inhibitor and an antibiotic, used to treat tuberculosis. Specifically it is used, along with other antituberculosis medications, for active drug resistant tuberculosis. It ...

. In 1958 his Merck team determined the structure of coenzyme Q10. He later served as director of the Institute of Biomedical Research at the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,07 ...

, where he was also Ashbel Smith Professor of Chemistry. In recognition for his scientific contributions, he received the

Perkin Medal The Perkin Medal is an award given annually by the Society of Chemical Industry (American Section) to a scientist residing in America for an "innovation in applied chemistry resulting in outstanding commercial development." It is considered the ...

in 1960, the William H. Nichols Medal in 1967, the Priestley Medal in 1986, and the

National Medal of Science The National Medal of Science is an honor bestowed by the President of the United States to individuals in science and engineering who have made important contributions to the advancement of knowledge in the fields of behavioral and social scienc ...

in 1990.

References

External links

Karl August Folkers
biographical memoir by William Shive 1906 births 1997 deaths 20th-century American biochemists National Medal of Science laureates Vitamin researchers Merck & Co. people University of Texas at Austin faculty University of Illinois alumni {{US-biochemist-stub