Inventing Synthetic Methods to Discover How Enzymes Work

Creative “cheating” led Stephen B. H. Kent, born in 1945, to solve one of the Grand Challenges of 20th Century chemistry: the total synthesis of protein molecules. Twenty-five formative years in his native New Zealand had prepared him in manifold ways. Vigorous debates at the family dinner table, combined with secondary school classes in Kantian moral philosophy and the discipline of competitive distance running influenced his later successes in scientific research. As a university undergraduate he was fascinated by the ability of enzymes to catalyze chemical reactions and set out to gain the expertise to understand how they did it. Steve loved to experiment and didn’t leave the bench for many years to come. Keep it simple, be counter-dogma and ignore the opinions of referees were his guiding principles. Read how his ambition to understand the chemistry of enzyme catalysis led stephen kent to the United States and about his adventures there in science and everyday life.

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