Edwin C. Webb

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Edwin Clifford Webb
Vice-Chancellor of Macquarie University
In office
1976–1986
Preceded byAlexander George Mitchell
Succeeded byDianne Yerbury
Personal details
Born(1921-05-21)21 May 1921[1]
Dorset, England
Died17 January 2006(2006-01-17) (aged 84)[1]
Alma materClare College, Cambridge
OccupationAcademic
ProfessionBiochemist

Edwin Clifford Webb (21 May 1921 – 17 January 2006) was a British biochemist.

Life and career

Webb was born in Dorset and educated at Poole Grammar School and Clare College, Cambridge, where he studied nerve gases and graduated with a first-class BA in Natural Sciences in 1942.[1][2] He remained at Cambridge for his doctorate, where he was a Beit Fellow. There he worked in the laboratory of Malcolm Dixon, collaborating with him in the study of enzymes. Together, they wrote a classic textbook on the subject, Enzymes, which was first published by Longmans in 1958,[3] Webb subsequently took a chair in biochemistry[4] at the University of Queensland but continued to collaborate with Dixon on further editions.[5][6] In 1970, he became the Deputy Vice-Chancellor at Queensland and in 1975 he became the second Vice-Chancellor of Macquarie University. He retired in 1986 but continued to work on the enzyme list of the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (IUBMB) while living in Townsville.[2]

Research

Cambridge

Webb's first paper was written with Kenneth Bailey on yeast pyrophosphatase,[7] the first of many papers on enzymes. It was followed by several papers on nerve gases, for example on British anti-lewisite with Ruth van Heyningen.[8] Research collaboration with Malcolm Dixon began with a study of phosphotransferases,[9] and continued with other work, both theoretical[10] and experimental.

Queensland

After moving to Queensland Webb collaborated with Burt Zerner on Jack bean urease, starting with a study of its purification and assay,[11] followed by other papers on the same enzyme. He also worked with Zerner on other enzymes, including carboxylesterases.[12]

Nomenclature

Webb's interest in biochemical nomenclature started early in his career,[13] and after the IUBMB compilation was published for the last time as a printed book[14] he wrote a retrospective article about it.[15]

References

  1. ^ a b c Who's Who, DOI 10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U39149
  2. ^ a b Keith Tipton (December 2006), "Edwin Clifford Webb", IUBMB Life, 58 (12): 734–736, doi:10.1080/15216540601055356
  3. ^ Dixon, M; Webb, EC (1958). Enzymes (1st ed.). London: Longmans, Green, and Co.
  4. ^ "Professor Emeritus Edwin Webb FRACI". 8 January 2016.
  5. ^ Dixon, M; Webb, EC (1964). Enzymes (2nd ed.). London: Longmans, Green, and Co.
  6. ^ Dixon, M; Webb, EC; Thorne, CJR; Tipton, KF (1979). Enzymes (3rd ed.). London: Longmans Group. ISBN 978-0122183584.
  7. ^ Bailey, K; Webb, EC (1944). "Purification and Properties of Yeast Pyrophosphatase". Biochem. J. 38 (5): 394–398. doi:10.1042/bj0380394. PMC 1258115. PMID 16747821.
  8. ^ Webb, EC; van Heyningen, R (1947). "The action of British anti-lewisite (BAL) on enzyme systems". Biochem. J. 41 (1): 74–78. doi:10.1042/bj0410074. PMC 1258426. PMID 16748122.
  9. ^ Dixon, M.; Webb, E. C. (1953). "Phosphate-Transferring Enzymes". British Medical Bulletin. 9 (2): 110–115. doi:10.1093/oxfordjournals.bmb.a074324. PMID 13059393.
  10. ^ Dixon, M; Webb, E C (1961). "Enzyme fractionation by salting-out – a theoretical note". Advances in Protein Chemistry. 16: 197–219. doi:10.1016/S0065-3233(08)60030-3. ISBN 9780120342167. PMID 14028133.
  11. ^ Blakeley, Robert L.; Webb, Edwin C.; Zerner, Burt (1969). "Jack bean urease (EC 3.5.1.5). A new purification and reliable rate assay". Biochemistry. 8 (5): 1984–1990. doi:10.1021/bi00833a031. PMID 4977580.
  12. ^ Stoops, J K; Horgan, D J; Runnegar, M T; De Jersey, J; Webb, E C; Zerner, B (1969). "Carboxylesterases (EC 3.1.1). Kinetic studies on carboxylesterases". Biochemistry. 8 (5): 2026–2033. doi:10.1021/bi00833a037. PMID 5815945.
  13. ^ Webb, E C (1970). "Communication in Biochemistry". Nature. 225 (5228): 132–135. Bibcode:1970Natur.225..132W. doi:10.1038/225132a0. PMID 5409959.
  14. ^ Webb, Edwin C. (10 September 1992). Enzyme Nomenclature 1992: Recommendations of the Nomenclature Committee of the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and the Nomenclature and Classification of Enzymes. Orlando: Academic Press. ISBN 978-0122271649.
  15. ^ Webb, E C (1993). "Enzyme Nomenclature - a personal retrospective". FASEB J. 7 (12): 1192–1194. doi:10.1096/fasebj.7.12.8375619. PMID 8375619. S2CID 9678760.
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