Gustav Embden

Gustav Embden

Gustav Embden
Born November 10, 1874
Died July 25, 1933
Nationality German
Fields chemist
Known for Embden-Meyerhof pathway

Gustav Georg Embden (November 10, 1874 - July 25, 1933) was a German chemist who conducted studies on carbohydrate metabolism and muscle contraction, and was the first to discover and link together all the steps involved in the conversion of glycogen to lactic acid. In 1918 Otto Fritz Meyerhof explained - together with the Jew-Polish-Sovietic biochemist Jakub Karol Parnas - cellular metabolism by showing that it involved the breakdown of glucose to lactic acid. Embden worked out the precise steps involved in the breakdown. This cellular metabolic sequence from glycogen to lactic acid became known as the Embden-Meyerhof-Parnas pathway. He had also previously studied the liver's metabolic processes, laying a foundation for understanding diabetes.

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