Braunshtein, Aleksandr
Braunshtein, Aleksandr Evseevich
Born May 13 (26), 1902, in Kharkov. Soviet biochemist. Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1964) and of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR (1945).
Braunshtein graduated from the Medical Institute in Kharkov in 1925. From 1928 to 1935 he was senior scientific worker at the Biochemical Institute of the People’s Commissariat of Public Health of the USSR and at the Central State Institute of Occupational Diseases. From 1936 to 1960 he was head of a laboratory at the All-Union Institute of Experimental Medicine and the Institute of Biological and Medical Chemistry. In 1960 he became head of a laboratory at the Institute of Molecular Biology of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Braunshtein is the author of over 180 works. His major works are on the metabolism of amino acids, the chemistry of enzymes, and other areas. He discovered the transamination reaction (1937, with M. G. Kritsman) and other biochemical transformations of amino acids and established the paramount role of transamination in the processes of assimilation and dissimilation of nitrogen. Braunshtein discovered the participation of vitamin B6 in many transformations of amino acids and worked out (1952, with M. M. Shemiakin) a general theory of the action of enzymes containing that vitamin. A recipient of the State Prize of the USSR in 1941, he has been awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor.
WORKS
“Obrazovanie aminokislot putem intermolekuliarnogo perenosa aminogruppy.” Biokhimiia, 1937, vol. 2, issues 2 and 6. (With M. G. Kritsman.)Biokhimiia aminokislotnogo obmena. Moscow, 1949.
“Teoriia protsessov aminokislotnogo obmena, kataliziruemykh piridoksalevymi enzimami.” Biokhimiia, 1953, vol. 18, issue 4. (With M. M. Shemiakin.)
Glavnye puti assimiliatsii i dissimiliatsii azota u zhivotnykh. Moscow, 1957.
“Pyridoxal Phosphate.” In The Enzymes, vol. 2. New York-London, 1960.