Edwin_C._Webb

Edwin C. Webb

Edwin C. Webb

Biochemist

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

Quick Facts Vice-Chancellor of Macquarie University, Preceded by ...

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. [1]
    Who's Who, DOI 10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U39149
  2. [2]
    Keith Tipton (December 2006), "Edwin Clifford Webb", IUBMB Life, 58 (12): 734–736, doi:10.1080/15216540601055356
  3. [3]
    Dixon, M; Webb, EC (1958). Enzymes (1st ed.). London: Longmans, Green, and Co.
  4. [4]
    "Professor Emeritus Edwin Webb FRACI". 8 January 2016.
  5. [5]
    Dixon, M; Webb, EC (1964). Enzymes (2nd ed.). London: Longmans, Green, and Co.
  6. [6]
    Dixon, M; Webb, EC; Thorne, CJR; Tipton, KF (1979). Enzymes (3rd ed.). London: Longmans Group. ISBN 978-0122183584.
  7. [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. [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. [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. [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. [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. [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. [13]
    Webb, E C (1970). "Communication in Biochemistry". Nature. 225 (5228): 132–135. Bibcode:1970Natur.225..132W. doi:10.1038/225132a0. PMID 5409959.
  14. [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. [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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