Iphigenia Photaki

Iphigenia Photaki (, ; also known after marriage as Iphigenia Vourvidou-Photaki, ; 1921–1983) was a Greek organic chemist remembered for her contributions in peptide chemical synthesis, especially in the synthesis of biologically/enzymatically active peptides.

Photaki was in 1965 the fourth woman overall to be habilitated in a scientific discipline in Greece, and the second to do so in the field of Chemistry. Despite her internationally distinguished research and sizeable recent grants from the NHRF and the United States NIH, she was not allowed to teach by the Greek military junta until 1969 and was intensively interrogated by the Cities Police Security Directorate on account of her anti-dictatorial political beliefs.

Photaki's teaching career was purposefully hindered by the Ministry of Education until the restoration of democracy in 1974; indeed, in 1975 she was promoted to extraordinary professor, a decade after receiving her habilitation. Shortly afterwards, in 1977, she was promoted to full professor (as Professor of Organic Chemistry) and Head of the Organic Chemistry Laboratory, both positions once held by her mentor Zervas. Photaki died in 1983 at the age of 62.

She was reported to spend very long hours at the laboratory, occasionally from "8 in the morning till 10 in the evening". In her 20-year career as a member of the University of Athens faculty, she supervised (alone or jointly with other colleagues) more than 15 doctoral dissertations.

Scientific work Although many of Photaki's important contributions were related to peptide synthesis, her scientific work touched on a large number of topics within organic synthesis. In total she published around 50 papers in international English- or German-language chemical journals.

Peptide synthesis Continuing and expanding the tradition of the University of Athens within the subject, starting from Zervas of Bergmann-Zervas carbobenzoxy method fame, Photaki initially worked on further refinement of suitable protecting groups for oligopeptide synthesis. She investigated with Zervas new types of protection such as N-protection with benzyl phosphate esters (N-phosphamide derivatives), S-protection using trityl, benzhydryl or benzoyl groups (as part of the greater effort for the synthesis of asymmetric cysteine-containing peptides), N-protection using the o-nitrophenylsulfenyl (NPS) group discovered in their Athens laboratory, or S-protection using the p-methoxycarbobenzoxy group (a modification of the Z group).

With the above methodologies she embarked on the synthesis of complex polypeptides, especially fragments of enzyme active sites and peptide hormones. Some notable achievements in papers Photaki co-authored include the first synthesis of the 20-membered insulin intra-chain ring or –following her research under du Vigneaud– several previously inaccessible oxytocin analogues (e.g. 4-deamido-oxytocin) and a novel oxytocin synthesis via a different route than the du Vigneaud synthesis.

In later years she also examined the preparation of biologically active atypical peptides such as Nω-arginine or lanthionine-containing peptides.

Other research With her expertise on peptide synthesis, Photaki examined the biocatalytic properties and kinetics of enzyme active site analogues she prepared.

Another research topic she developed in the early part of her career was the chemical transformation of carbohydrates and glycosylated species, such as the stereoselective conversion of D-glucosamine to L-serinaldehyde which formed the basis of her doctoral thesis.

Finally, she examined some of the coordination complexes formed by histidine-containing peptides with , , and , and after the antitumour properties of platinum complexes were realised, she also worked on the peptide enzymatic reactions in the presence of amine complexes.

Honours and awards In 1970 Iphigenia Vourvidou-Photaki was awarded the one-off Georgios Panopoulos Prize of the Academy of Athens, presented to her for "...her research on the chemical synthesis of polypeptide hormones and investigation of enzyme active sites, which constitute an internationally notable contribution of Greek science to the modern discipline of Chemistry".

During her lifetime, she was invited many times as a distinguished researcher in academic conferences related to her subject; some examples were the personal invitations she received to the 3rd European Peptide Symposium (EPS) (Basel, 1960), the 5th EPS (Oxford, 1962), 6th EPS (Athens, 1963 as organiser), 6th International Biochemistry Conference (New York, 1964), 7th EPS (Budapest, 1964), Symposium on Natural Sulfur Compounds (Copenhagen, 1966), NATO Seminar of Molecular Biology (Spetses, 1966), 8th EPS (Noordwijk, 1966), 9th EPS (Paris, 1968), 10th EPS (Abano, 1970), 11th EPS (Vienna, 1971), 3rd American Peptide Symposium (APS) (Boston, 1972), 13th EPS (Kiryat, 1974), 4th APS (New York, 1975), and the 14th EPS (Wépion, 1976) over which she presided.