Donald F. Steiner

Donald F. Steiner (1930) is an American biochemist and a professor at the University of Chicago.

Birth and education

Donald F. Steiner was born in 1930 in the United States. He completed his B.S. in Chemistry and Zoology from the University of Cincinnati in 1952. He completed his M.S. in Biochemistry from the University of Chicago in 1956 and M.D. from the same university in 1956.

Research

Donald F. Steiner is known for his discoveries on insulin, a hormone that helps the body control the use of sugar. He found that insulin is synthesized from a larger precursor protein in the beta cells of the pancreas and this led the way to elucidation of how the islet cells function, and how peptide hormones, in general, are synthesized and metabolized. He and his colleagues have also devised methods for measuring insulin and its precursors in human serum.

In 1984/5, he was awarded the Wolf Prize in Medicine for "his discoveries concerning the bio-synthesis and processing of insulin which have had profound implications for basic biology and clinical medicine".

External links

• Biochemist Wins Wolf Prize
• The Wolf Prize in Medicine in 1984/85 (detail)