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Anfinsen, Christian Boehmer (1916–1995)

Anfinsen, Christian Boehmer
Credits: Courtesy of the National Library of Medicine
Christian B. Anfinsen, M.D., was a biochemist and Nobel laureate who worked on the structure and function of proteins; the relations between protein chemistry and evolution; and the role of amino acid sequencing in the folding pattern of ribonuclease. He spent most of his career at the NIH.

Dr. Anfinsen arrived at the National Heart Institute (now the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute) in 1950. In 1962, he was appointed chief of the Laboratory of Chemical Biology at the National Institute of Arthritis and Metabolic Diseases (now the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases), where he remained until 1981. Elected to the National Academy of Science in 1963, Dr. Anfinsen went on to share the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1972 "for his work on ribonuclease, especially concerning the connection between the amino acid sequence and the biologically active conformation."

The Stetten Museum maintains an exhibit honoring the life and accomplishments of Christian Anfinsen, entitled "Protein Folding and the Nobel Prize" in the NIH Clinical Center (Building 10).

Institutes

  • National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases

    NIAMS - Opened: 1986

  • National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute

    NHLBI - Opened: 1948

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