15 Facts About Moses Kunitz

Moses Kunitz was a Russian-American biochemist who spent most of his career at Rockefeller University.

Moses Kunitz is best known for a series of experiments in purification and crystallization of proteins, contributing to the determination that enzymes are proteins.

Moses Kunitz was raised and educated there until his move to the United States, where he settled in New York City in 1909 and became an American citizen in 1915.

Moses Kunitz graduated from Cooper Union with a degree in chemistry in 1916 and then enrolled there for graduate school in electrical engineering.

Moses Kunitz began work as a technical assistant in Jacques Loeb's laboratory at Rockefeller University in 1913 and continued there throughout his graduate years.

Loeb arranged for Moses Kunitz to receive a staff appointment at Rockefeller after graduation.

Moses Kunitz then assumed professor emeritus status but continued to work regularly in the laboratory until eventually retiring in 1970.

Moses Kunitz was awarded the Carl Neuberg Medal in 1957 in recognition of his long research career and noted technical skill in the laboratory, which was critical to his long series of successes in protein crystallization.

Moses Kunitz was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1967.

Moses Kunitz is best known for his efforts in protein crystallization, successfully crystallizing a number of enzymes and enzyme precursor proteins, particularly proteases.

Moses Kunitz worked with trypsin and chymotrypsin and their precursors, as well as pepsin.

Moses Kunitz studied protease inhibitors and devoted particular effort to the soybean trypsin inhibitor; the inhibitor protein, its domain family, and a soybean cultivar lacking this protein are all named after him.

Moses Kunitz himself was nominated three times for a share of a Nobel for this work.

Moses Kunitz worked on other proteins as well, in particular ribonucleases, which were popular model systems for their small size and ease of crystallization.

Moses Kunitz was widely recognized specifically for his craftsmanship and technical skill in the laboratory.