Biochemiczna rewolucja, czyli rzecz o Leonie Marchlewskim i Marcelim Nenckim

Understanding of the fundamental law and mechanisms governing the phenomenon of life is an inherent feature of human civilization. With the birth of philosophy comes first speculation about the physical conditions of life processes, which consequently will lead to the formation of the first scientific theories. Among them an important role plays the Hippocratic humoral theory. This scientific rout will be taken by the next generations of researchers seeking for the most appropriate methods and precise language of science. A significant breakthrough came in the 16th century, when Paracelsus coined his philosophical and alchemical doctrine which gives such attention to perpetual changes in living organisms, then described on the basis of transmutation. Nearly three centuries later, in the early nineteenth century the polish physician and chemist Jędrzej Śniadecki introduced the concept of metabolism, based on the principles that are present in compounds and chemical reactions. Just a dozen years later, in 1828, Wöhler`s synthesis of urea gives birth to organic chemistry. Language of chemistry has become a tool for the description of biological phenomena, slowly building up physiological chemistry which shortly was turned to biochemistry. For a young science one of the first challenges was the level of the rudimental for the living organisms dyes, which rightly appeared as essential for the understanding of the chemical nature of the phenomena of life. From that point the studies on chlorophyll (Pelletier, Caventou, Shunck, Hoppe- -Seyler) and hemoglobin (Hünefeld, Funke, Hoppe-Seyler) become crucial topic. In this pioneering studies significant, and sometimes decisive role was to be played by Polish scientists (Teichmann, Marchlewski, Nencki, Zaleski). Especially a few years’ time and very intense cooperation of Leon Marchlewski and Marcel Nencki would bring momentous decision. Marchlewski’s bold hypothesis about the chemical unity on the level of the basic dyes in plant and animal worlds was fully confirmed in the experimental procedure and the results achieved by Nencki brought the solution to the problem of the chemical structure of hemin. Joint research of Polish scientists became the foundation of modern biochemistry and had changed the biological and medical sciences so deeply, that we can talk about “biochemical revolution”. The following paper is an evaluation of the speech held by me during X National Organic Chemistry Symposium – OSCO X, Lodz, April 16–18, 2015.