Skou, Jens

Skou, Jens C. (1918-). A Danish chemist who won the Nobel Prize in 1997 for his discovery of the first molecular pump, an ion transporting enzyme called Na+-K ATPase. He is emeritus professor of biophysics at Aarhus University, Denmark. He received his Ph.D. from Aarhus University. 

Skou, Jens Christian (b. 1918) Danish chemist who established that the enz3me sodium, potassium-ATPase was the first enzyme known to promote the transport of ions across a cell... 

A valuable clue to the manner in which iron pump functions, came in 1957 when an enzyme of molar mass 110 kg/mol was discovered by Jens Skou which hydrolyses ATP only if Na and K+ ions are present in addition to Mgt+ required for all ATPases (enzymes catalysing the hydrolysis of ATP). The activity of this enzyme correlates quantitatively with the extent of ion transport. Another important clue was provided by the observation that this ATPase is phosphorylated at an aspartase site only in the presence of Na+ and Mg2+ ions. The phosphorylated product is hydrolysed if K+ ions are present. It has been also observed that the enzyme undergoes a conformational change when it is phosphorylated. 

Jens Skou Denmark discovery of ion transport enzyme Na+, K+-ATPase... 

Paul D. Boyer (b. 1918 in Provo, Utah) is Professor Emeritus of the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). He shared half of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1997 with John Walker (b. 1941), MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, England, for their elucidation of the enzymatic mechanism underlying the synthesis of adenosine triphosphate (ATP). [The other half of the 1997 chemistry Nobel Prize went to Professor Jens C. Skou (b. 1918) of Aarhus University, Denmark, for the first discovery of an ion-transporting enzyme, Na , IC-ATPase. ]... 

Boyer and Walker received the 1997 Nobel prize for Chemistry together with Jens Skou, who discovered the Na /K ATPase (of which more in Chapter 9). 

ATP shuttles to and fro throughout cells, and is "traded" during chemical reactions. These molecular transactions drive reactions forward to make a product. Several decades of work earned three scientists — Paul Boyer of the University of California, Los Angeles, John Walker of the Medical Research Council in the United Kingdom, and Jens Skou of the University of Aarhus in Denmark—the Nobel Prize for figuring out how the motor, a molecule... 

In virtually every animal cell type, the concentration of Na is lower in the cell than in the surrounding medium, and the concentration of is higher (Fig. 11-36). This imbalance is maintained by a primary active transport system in the plasma membrane. The enzyme Na K ATPase, discovered by Jens Skou in 1957, couples breakdown of ATP to the simultaneous movement of both Na and against their electrochemical gradients. For each molecule of ATP converted to ADP and Pj, the transporter moves two ions inward and three Na ions outward across the plasma membrane. The Na K ATPase is an integral protein with two subunits (M -50,000 and -110,000), both of which span the membrane. 

Paui D. Boyer, John E. Waiker, Jens C. Skou 1943 George de Hevesy... 

In 1997, Paul D. Boyer, John E. Walker, and Jens C. Skou (1918- ) shared the Nobel Prize in chemistry. Skou, at Aarhus University in Denmark, discovered during the 1950s and 60s the mechanism whereby energy derived from ATP is used to pump Na and K ions across cell membranes. Inside cells there is high K concentration and low Na concentration while the reverse is true in extracellular fluids. Energy is required to keep each of these intra- and extracellular gradients from disappearing. The key enzyme involved in this process, Na /K -ATPase was finally isolated in chemically stable form from cell membranes in 1980. 

Paul D. Boyer, John E. Walker and Jens C. Skou for the elucidation of the enzymatic mechanism underlying the synthesis of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and the first discoveiy of an iontransporting enzyme, Na, -ATPase. 

Discovery and characterization of the actual molecular pump that establishes the sodium and potassium concentration gradient (Na > -ATPase) earned Jens Skou (Aarhus University, Denmark) half of the 1997 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The other half went to Paul D. Boyer (UCLA) and John E. Walker (Cambridge) for elucidating the enzymatic mechanism of ATP synthesis. 

The 1997 Nobel Prize for chemistry was awarded to three biochemists for the study of the ATP molecule John Walker at the University of Cambridge in the UK, Paul Boyer of the University of California at Los Angeles, and Jens Skou of Aarhus University in Denmark. 

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