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Wald, George (1906-97). (1) The interconversion of the retinenes and vitamines A in vitro. Offprint from Biochimica et biophysica acta 4 (1950). 215-228pp. 251 x 170 mm. Original printed wrappers, a bit sunned. Garrison-Morton.com 14277. With: (2) Collection of 41 offprints and other materials on vitamin A and vision as listed below, including two binders of offprints from Wald s library labeled "Collected Papers" and several other offprints from the library of Wald or his wife, biochemist Ruth Hubbard (1924-2016), some with their signatures. V.p., 1935-71. Various sizes. Most in original printed wrappers. Offprints in binder hole-punched and with some left margins bent. Overall very good. Listing available. (1) First Edition, Offprint Issue. Wald s personal copy of one of his key papers on vitamin A and vision, in which he "deciphered the interconversion of rhodopsin to retinene to vitamin A" (Garrison-Morton.com 14277). Wald received the Nobel Prize in 1967 for his fundamental discoveries concerning the primary physiological and chemical visual processes in the eye, particularly the role of vitamin A. "Wald unraveled the nature of the light-sensing molecules found in photoreceptor cells and was the dominant force in his field for over forty years. Beginning with postdoctoral research in the early 1930s, Wald showed that the visual pigment molecules consist of a protein (termed opsin) to which is bound a derivative of vitamin A (vitamin A aldehyde, now termed retinal). Retinal serves as chromophore for these molecules, absorbing the light and initiating conformational changes in the protein that lead eventually to the excitation of the photoreceptor cells. Wald s findings represented the first instance that a biochemical role for a fat-soluble vitamin was established [emphasis ours] and were widely recognized. Wald was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1950 and was awarded the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine in 1967 for his monumental contributions to our understanding of the molecular basis of photo-reception" (Dowling, p. 299). (2) First Editions, Offprint Issues (except for one photocopy and one First Edition). We are also offering a collection of offprints (and one book) documenting Wald s vision research from the mid-1930s to the end of the 1950s. Chief among these are two binders of offprints from Wald s library labeled "Collected Papers," prefaced with a typed "Foreword" by Wald explaining the organization of the papers into five groups. Also included are several other offprints and one book from Wald s library, some signed by Wald or by his wife and collaborator, biochemist Ruth Hubbard, best known for her discovery that visual excitation is initiated by a chemical rearrangement of the visual pigment called a cis-trans isomeration. Highlights of the collection include papers detailing Wald s early investigations of frog, fish and chicken retinas, which led to his discovery of retinine (retinal) and vitamin A2 and the visual pigments porphyropsin and iodopsin. Dowling, George Wald November 18, 1906 April 12, 1997, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Biographical Memoirs 78 (2000). . Seller Inventory # 51810
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