Bloch, Konrad Emil

▪ 2001

      German-born American biochemist (b. Jan. 21, 1912, Neisse, Ger. [now Nysa, Pol.]—d. Oct. 15, 2000, Burlington, Mass.), conducted research to determine how the body creates cholesterol, work that earned him a share, together with Feodor Lynen, of the 1964 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. Bloch's studies helped to reveal that cholesterol, a substance that occurs naturally in cells, results from the biosynthesis of acetic acid. The discovery led to a heightened awareness of cholesterol's role in some circulatory diseases and to the development of drugs that lowered cholesterol in the blood. Bloch earned a degree (1934) in chemical engineering from the Technische Hochschule, Munich, Ger. Nazi oppression kept Bloch, a Jew, from continuing his studies, so he first went to Switzerland and, in 1936, to the U.S., where he earned a doctorate in biochemistry at Columbia University, New York City. His cholesterol studies began at Columbia, and in 1942, along with David Rittenberg, he noted that a series of 30 or more chemical reactions took place in transforming acetic acid into cholesterol. He moved to the University of Chicago, where he served as a professor (1946–54) before being named the Higgins Professor of Biochemistry at Harvard University; he held the post until his retirement in 1982. Bloch also served as a professor in the School of Public Health at Harvard (1979–84) and was chairman of the biochemistry department (1968–72). He was also the author of Blondes in Venetian Paintings, the Nine-Banded Armadillo, and Other Essays in Biochemistry (1994). Bloch was awarded the National Medal of Science in 1988.

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