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Black and white picture of Sir Hans Krebs in the lab overlooking Oxford.

On Tuesday 11 June 2019, Professor David Paterson hosted the inaugural Sir Hans Krebs Prize Lecture, entitled "Leptin and the Endocrine Control of Food Intake and Metabolism", which was given by Jeffrey Friedman M.D., PhD ForMemRS, Professor at Rockefeller University and Investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. See "Jeffrey Friedman ForMemRS delivers inaugural Sir Hans Krebs Lecture" for more information.

On Thursday 9 June 2022, the 2022 Sir Hans Krebs Prize Lecture "Some adventures in hormones, metabolism and behaviour" was delivered by Professor Sir Stephen O’Rahilly, MD FRS FMedSci from the University of Cambridge. See "Professor Sir Stephen O'Rahilly FRS delivers 2022 Krebs Prize Lecture" for more information.

On Thursday 1 June 2023, the 2023 Krebs Prize Lecture "Metabolic regulation of insulin secretion in health and disease"was delivered by DPAG's Professor Dame Frances Ashcroft FRS. See Professor Dame Frances Ashcroft FRS delivers 2023 Krebs Prize Lecture for more information.

Biography

Krebs Medal© Sir Hans Krebs Prize Lecture Medal. Image within medal taken from the archives of the Department of Biochemistry, University of CambridgeSir Hans Adolf Krebs was born on August 25 1900 in Hildesheim, Germany, to ear, nose and throat surgeon, Dr Georg Krebs, and his wife Alma Davidson.

Krebs studied Medicine at the Universities of Göttingen, Freiburg-im-Breisgau, and Berlin, before earning his M.D. degree at the University of Munich and spending an additional year studying chemistry at Berlin. He was then appointed assistant to leading biochemist, Professor Otto Warburg (1926 – 30), before returning to clinical work. In 1931, he secured an academic post at Freiburg University, gaining international recognition for the discovery of the urea cycle, considered a milestone in biochemistry.

In 1933, the National Socialist Government dismissed Krebs, as a Jew, from his post. He was invited to work at the University of Cambridge, later moving to Sheffield University where he pursued further ground-breaking research into the oxidation of sugars. This led to his second major discovery, the critic acid cycle, later known as the ‘Krebs Cycle’, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine in 1953. This discovery provided us with an explanation of one of the most fundamental processes of life: the conversion of food into energy within a cell.

In 1945, the Medical Research Council set up a Unit for Research in Cell Metabolism at Sheffield, as head of which Krebs was given Professorial status. In 1954, Krebs came to Oxford University as Whitley Professor of Biochemistry and a fellow of Trinity College. The MRC Unit transferred with him, to the Metabolic Research Laboratory in the Radcliffe Infirmary. Although officially retiring in 1967, he continued to work, funded by the MRC and other grants, until his death in 1981 at the age of 80.

Krebs was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1947. The Royal Society awarded him its Royal Medal in 1954 and the Copley Medal in 1961. He was Knighted in 1958, and that same year he was awarded the Gold Medal of the Netherlands Society for Physics, Medical Science and Surgery.

He married Margaret Cicely Fieldhouse in 1938. They have two sons, Paul and John, and one daughter, Helen. His son, Lord John R Krebs FRS, became a renowned ornithologist, Oxford University Professor and Principal of Jesus College.

speakers and talk titles

2023 - Professor Dame Frances Ashcroft FRS FMedSci // Metabolic regulation of insulin secretion in health and disease

2022 - Professor Sir Stephen O’Rahilly MD FRS FMedSci // Some adventures in hormones, metabolism and behaviour

2019 - Jeffrey Friedman M.D., PhD // Leptin and the Endocrine Control of Food Intake and Metabolism

Decorative inaugural Haldane lecture 2019 posterKrebs Lecture 2022 Framed posterFrances Ashcroft Krebs Lecture 2023 framed poster

 

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