Biochemistry 60th Anniversary Timeline

Biochemistry launches with Hans Neurath as Editor-in-Chief. He navigates the journal through its first thirty years. Press release John Kozarich’s Viewpoint

Elliot Elson and John Edsall co-authored Biochemistry’s first paper, detailing the properties of thioglycolic acid and cysteine.

Nancy Brandon was the first woman to co-author a paper in the journal, also in its first issue. This manuscript investigates the relationship between hydroxyl reactivities and their pKa’s.

Norma Greenfield and Gerald Fasman publish an influential paper about using circular dichroism to predict protein conformation. over 2700 citations over 9000 views

Indian scientists L. K. Ramachandran and L. V. S. Sastry contributed the journal’s first paper from authors outside the United States, also in the journal’s first issue. They wrote about the spectrophotometric determination of the carboxyl pKa on 2,4-dinitrophenyl-amino acids.

1962

1964

Mo Cleland publishes an influential paper about dithiothreitol (DTT), a water-soluble redox agent. over 1500 citations over 7400 views Recommended by Luke Lavis, Gary Pielak

1966

Koshland, Némethy, and Filmer (aka KNF) publish an influential paper about cooperative ligand-binding mechanisms. over 2300 citations over 3700 views

Norman Good, Seikichi Izawa, and co-workers publish an influential paper about hydrogen ion buffers useful for biological research. over 1900 citations over 14,300 views Gary Pielak's Perspective Recommended by Andrea Mattevi

1969

1976

Jeremy R. Knowles, W. John Albery, and co-workers publish the first free-energy profile for an enzyme-catalyzed reaction (triosephosphate isomerase). John Gerlt’s Perspective Recommended by Luke Lavis, Betsy Komives, Andrea Mattevi

1977

Wei et al. report the m6A RNA consensus motif. 146 citations 497 views Chengqi Yi’s Viewpoint

1979

Racker and colleagues demonstrate the passive loading of fluorescein in living cells to measure intracellular pH. 1550 citations 3488 views Luke Lavis’ Perspective

1980

Roger Y. Tsien publishes an influential paper about calcium buffers and indicators. Tsien was a pioneer in this area of research, and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2005 for the discovery of Green Fluorescent Protein. over 1500 citations over 4600 views Evan Miller’s Perspective Recommended by Luke Lavis

Acknowledgements

Biochemistry would like to thank Mark Griep, Jim Staros, and Seth Rasmussen from the ACS Division of the History of Chemistry as well as Andrea Mattevi, Elizabeth Komives, Gary Pielak, Luke Lavis, Jennifer Petter, and Samantha Piszkiewicz for contributing to this timeline.

1981–2000

Discover the Journal’s Robust History

Biochemistry is thrilled to celebrate its 60th anniversary through this interactive timeline. Explore the impactful research articles and landmark developments from 1962 through 2021, including Perspective highlights collected in the 60th Anniversary Special Issue.

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2001–2021

Susan Brehm and Thomas Cech publish a paper about the fate of an RNA intervening sequence that excises itself from a transcript. Cech was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1989 for this area of research. 56 citations 150 views Recommended by Luke Lavis, Andrea Mattevi

Hiroyoshi Hidaka and coworkers publish an influential paper about an inhibitor of protein kinase and protein kinase C called isoquinolinesulfonamides. over 2000 citations over 1100 views Susan Taylor’s Perspective

Michael Marletta and colleagues document nitric oxide as an intermediate in the L-arginine to NO2-, NO3-, and citrulline pathway. over 1100 citations over 1500 views Michael Marletta’s Perspective

Kathleen Grant and Judith Klinman publish a paper about bovine serum amine oxidase in which they demonstrate protium and deuterium tunneling during the catalyzed reaction. 98 citations 224 views Recommended by Jen Petter

Lewis Kay, Dennis Torchia, and Ad Bax publish a set of pulse sequences that are still used with minor modifications in studies of protein backbone dynamics. 1315 citations 3770 views Jane Dyson’s Perspective

Sidney Altman shares the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Thomas R. Cech for their discovery of catalytic properties of RNA. First Altman paper in Biochemistry on Nobel topic

Ken Dill publishes an influential “Perspectives” review about the dominant forces in protein folding. over 2600 citations over 11,000 views Recommended by Gary Pielak

Donald Bashford and Martin Karplus publish an influential article in which they used computational modeling to calculate the pKa values in lysozyme. Karplus was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2013 for this area of research. over 790 citations over 2100 views Recommended by Andrea Mattevi

David Wishart and co-workers publish an influential article in which they used H-1 NMR chemical shifts to assign backbone secondary structure. over 1500 citations over 6200 views

Peter Lansbury and co-workers publish an influential article about the mechanism of amyloid formation by beta-amyloid protein. over 1300 citations over 4700 views

Mark Gerstein, Arthur Lesk, and Cyrus Chothia publish an influential “Perspectives in Biochemistry” review about structural mechanisms for protein domain movements. over 550 citations over 1500 views Recommended by Andrea Mattevi

Aziz Sancar publishes an influential “Perspectives in Biochemistry” review about the structure and function of DNA photolyase. Sancar was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2015 for this area of research. over 440 citations over 1800 views Recommended by Andrea Mattevi

Raushel, Holden, Kuo, and Benning publish first structure of an enzyme capable of hydrolizing toxic organophosphate triesters. 144 citations 732 views Frank Raushel’s Perspective

James Wells and co-workers publish a paper in which they use multiple alanine substitutions to characterize the growth hormone-receptor interface. 59 citations 332 views Recommended by Jen Petter

Kurt Wüthrich and co-workers publish a paper in which they measured protein mobility via N-15 spin relaxation. Wüthrich was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2002 for developing NMR as a tool to determine protein three-dimensional structure. 41 citations 246 views

Thoden et al. observe a 96 angstrom active site in the structure of carbamoyl phosphate synthetase. 233 citations 1593 views Reinhard Sterner Viewpoint

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Sheng, Ballou, and Massey investigate the chemical basis of the flavin-dependent Baeyer Villiger monooxygenase. 201 citations 2401 views Andrea Mattevi’s Perspective

Roderick MacKinnon shares the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Peter Agre for their structural and mechanistic studies of ion channels. Roderick Mackinnon published 11 articles on this topic in Biochemistry between 1989 and 2004. First: doi.org/10.1021/bi00446a020 Most cited: doi.org/10.1021/bi026215y

The “Gordon Hammes ACS Biochemistry Lectureship” was created to honor an individual for outstanding work at the interface of chemistry and biology, particularly in the realm of biochemistry, biological chemistry, and molecular biology. William Eaton receives the inaugural Gordon Hammes Lecture Award 1975—First article in Biochemistry 1994—Most cited Biochemistry article 2006—Most recent Biochemistry article

Peter Schultz and colleagues publish a streamlined plasmid-based system for efficient multi-site UAA incorporation in one target protein in live bacterial cells. Virginia Cornish’s Perspective

Daniel Herschlag and Margaux Pinney publish an influential “Perspective” about hydrogen bonds in which they propose five “Rules for Hydrogen Bonding”. over 8600 views 35 citations Recommended by Andrea Mattevi

Acknowledgements

1981–2000

Over 67,000 papers

have been published since 1962

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Acknowledgements