biography
| name: |
Folkers, Karl August
|
| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1906–97)
|
| biography:
| Biochemist, born in Decatur, Illinois, USA. He studied at Illinois, Wisconsin, and Yale universities, then directed research at Merck & Co, NJ. He became president of the Stanford Research Institute (1963–8), and director of the Institute for Biomedical Research at Texas University. His work on antibiotics and vitamins included, notably, the first isolation of the anti-pernicious anaemia factor, cyanocobalamin (Vitamin B12), by a Merck team in 1948, and the discovery of mevalonic acid, important for the production of many other biochemical compounds. |
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