Donald Van Slyke

Donald Dexter Van Slyke (March 29, 1883 – May 4, 1971), nicknamed Van, was a Dutch American biochemist. His achievements included the publication of 317 journal articles and 5 books, as well as numerous awards, among them the National Medal of Science and the first AMA Scientific Achievement Award.

Early days and education Van Slyke was born in Pike, New York on March 29, 1883. He completed his BA in 1905 and PhD in 1907 both at the University of Michigan, his father's alma mater.

Urease Work with G. E. Cullen on urease led to a mechanism that yields a kinetic equation observationally indistinguishable from the Henri–Michaelis–Menten equation, but based on different assumptions. Whereas Henri, and later Michaelis and Menten, treated the binding of substrate to free enzyme to produce an enzyme–substrate complex as an equilibrium, Van Slyke and Cullen treated it as an irreversible reaction:

Enzyme + substrate → enzyme–substrate complex → enzyme + product

Effectively, therefore, they assumed a steady-state process. Their equation for the rate at substrate concentration ,

resembles the Henri–Michaelis–Menten equation but the constant in the denominator is interpreted differently.

Clinical chemistry In 1914, Van Slyke was appointed chief chemist of the newly founded Rockefeller Institute Hospital, where he played a key part in developing the field of clinical chemistry. His work focused especially on the measurement of gas and electrolyte levels in tissues, Ames Award, American Association of Clinical Chemistry, 1964 National Medal of Science, USA, 1965 Elliott Cresson Medal, Franklin Institute of Philadelphia, 1965 Academy Medal for Distinguished Contributions in Biomedical Science, New York Academy of Medicine, 1967

Academic Society Memberships

United States National Academy of Sciences (1921) American Philosophical Society (1938) American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1940)