✎ About Jens C Skou
Who is it?: Nobel Laureate in Chemistry
Birth Day: October 08, 1918
Birth Place: Lemvig, Denmark, Danish
Known for: Na,K-ATPase
Awards: 1997, Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Fields: Physiology, Biophysics, Biochemistry
Jens C Skou
Jens C Skou was born on October 08, 1918 in Lemvig, Denmark, Danish, is Nobel Laureate in Chemistry. Jens Christian Skou is a Danish scientist and medical doctor who is credited for the discovery of an ion-transporting enzyme, sodium potassium activated adenosine triphosphate (Na+ K+-ATPase). The discovery earned him a Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1997, half of which he shared with Paul Boyer and John E Walker. A student of medicine, Skou's interest in research grew while he was investigating the active mechanism of local anaesthetic drugs. In the late 1950s he discovered the fact that nerve cell membranes of crabs contain an enzyme, sodium potassium ATPase, which in the form of the sodium potassium pump helps to maintain the salt balance between the cells and the tissue fluid by pumping sodium ions out of the cells and potassium ions into the cells. This, in turn, helped in maintaining a high intracellular concentration of potassium and a low concentration of sodium relative to the surrounding external environment. His work also led to the discovery of similar ATPase-based enzymes, including the ion pump that controls muscle contraction. Apart from carrying out research work, Skou also held important academic positions.
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🎂 Jens C Skou - Age, Bio, Faces and Birthday
Currently, Jens C Skou is 102 years, 3 months and 12 days old. Jens C Skou will celebrate 103rd birthday on a Friday 8th of October 2021. Below we countdown to Jens C Skou upcoming birthday.
Popular As Jens C Skou
Occupation Scientists
Age 102 years old
Born October 08, 1918 (Lemvig, Denmark, Danish)
Birthday October 08
Town/City Lemvig, Denmark, Danish
Nationality Danish
Jens C Skou's zodiac sign is Scorpio. According to astrologers, Scorpio-born are passionate and assertive people. They are determined and decisive, and will research until they find out the truth. Scorpio is a great leader, always aware of the situation and also features prominently in resourcefulness. Scorpio is a Water sign and lives to experience and express emotions. Although emotions are very important for Scorpio, they manifest them differently than other water signs. In any case, you can be sure that the Scorpio will keep your secrets, whatever they may be.
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Skou was born in Lemvig, Denmark to a wealthy family. His Father Magnus Martinus Skou was a timber and coal merchant. His mother Ane-Margrethe Skou took over the company after the death of his Father. At the age of 15, Skou entered a boarding school in Haslev, Zealand. He graduated in Medicine from the University of Copenhagen in 1944 and received his doctorate in 1954. He began working at the Aarhus University in 1947 and was appointed professor of biophysics in 1977. He retired from the Aarhus University in 1988, but he has kept his offices at the Department of Physiology (today part of Department of Biomedicine).
Skou had taken a few years away from his clinical training in the early 1950s to study the action of local anaesthetics. He had discovered that a substance's anaesthetic action was related to its ability to dissolve in a layer of the lipid part of the plasma membrane, the anaesthetic molecules affected the opening of sodium channels which he assumed to be protein. This, he argued, would affect the movement of sodium ions and make nerve cells inexcitable, thus causing anaesthesia.
In 1958 Skou went to a conference in Vienna to describe his work on cholinesterase. There he met Robert Post (born 1920 [2]), who had been studying the pumping of sodium and potassium in red blood cells. Post had recently discovered that three sodium ions were pumped out of the cell for every two potassium ions pumped in, and in his research he had made use of a substance called ouabain which had recently been shown to inhibit the pump.
In 1997 he received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (together with Paul D. Boyer and John E. Walker) for his discovery of Na,K-ATPase [1], making him the most recent Danish Nobel laureate and the first Nobel laureate at Aarhus University.
Post had not read Skou's paper, but he was excited when Skou told him about his work with ATPase. Post asked whether the enzyme was inhibited by ouabain. At this stage Skou was unaware that ouabain inhibited the pump, but he immediately telephoned to his lab and arranged for the experiment to be done. Ouabain did indeed inhibit the enzyme, thus establishing a link between the enzyme and the sodium-potassium pump.
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1918 births Danish chemists Danish Nobel laureates Danish physiologists Members of the European Molecular Biology Organization Living people Nobel laureates in Chemistry University of Copenhagen alumni Aarhus University faculty Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
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