Harold Edwin Umbarger

H. Edwin Umbarger grew up in Mansfield, Ohio and graduated from Mansfield Senior High School in 1939. At Ohio University he graduated with a bachelor's degree in chemistry in 1943 and a master's degree in zoology in 1944. For two years from 1944 to 1946 he served in the U.S. Navy as a hospital corpsman.[1] In 1945 he served aboard the USS Rescue.[2] In 1950 he received a Ph.D. in bacteriology from Harvard University.[1] His doctoral thesis, supervised by J. Howard Mueller,[3] is entitled Studies on the Interactions Involved in the Biosynthetic Mechanisms of Isoleucine and Valine in Escherichia Coli.[4] From 1950 to 1959 Umbarger did research at Harvard.[1] From 1957 to 1960 he was an assistant professor of bacteriology and Immunology at Harvard Medical School,[5] but he was untenured. For the academic year 1959-1960, on leave of absence from Harvard, he worked at several laboratories in England. From 1960 to 1964 he held the appointment of Staff Investigator at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.[5] At Purdue University he was appointed in 1964 a full professor and in 1970 Wright Distinguished Professor of Biological Sciences. He held that professorship until his retirement.[1]

Umbarger was a leading expert on biosynthesis of amino acids in bacteria. He is perhaps best known as the co-discoverer, with Edward A. Adelberg in 1953, of feedback inhibition in enzymology.[2][6]

H(arold) Edwin Umbarger had a major role in defining the pathways that living organisms employ to produce branched-chain amino acids (L-leucine, L-isoleucine, and L-valine), which are required in all proteins. He also played a pivotal role in identifying the biochemical mechanisms that bacterial and yeast cells use to modulate the synthesis of these amino acids in order to match their utilization in protein synthesis.[1]

While he was still a student, Umbarger married Merle Gladys Abele (1922–1993).[7] They had three daughters. In 1995 he married his second wife. Upon his death he was survived by his widow, three daughters, and six grandchildren.[5]

• 1963 — Guggenheim Fellowship.[8]
• 1971 — Elected a Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.[9]
• 1975 — Rosenstiel Award, jointly with Arthur B. Pardee (for independent research).[10]
• 1976 — Elected a Member of the National Academy of Sciences.[1]
• 1999 — Establishment of H. Edwin Umbarger Distinguished Professorship of Genetics at Purdue University. The first holder of the professorship was Jeffrey Bennetzen,[11] succeeded (in 2012) by Stanton B. Galvin.

• Umbarger, H. E. (1956). "Evidence for a Negative-Feedback Mechanism in the Biosynthesis of Isoleucine". Science. 123 (3202): 848. Bibcode:1956Sci...123..848U. doi:10.1126/science.123.3202.848. PMID 13324101.
• Umbarger, H. E.; Brown, B. (1957). "THREONINE DEAMINATION IN ESCHERICHIA COLI II. : Evidence for Two l-Threonine Deaminases". Journal of Bacteriology. 73 (1): 105–112. doi:10.1128/JB.73.1.105-112.1957. PMC 289754. PMID 13405870.
• Umbarger, H. E. (1961). "Feedback Control by Endproduct Inhibition". Cold Spring Harbor Symposia on Quantitative Biology. 26: 301–312. doi:10.1101/SQB.1961.026.01.036. PMID 13923752.
• Freundlich, M.; Burns, R. O.; Umbarger, H. E. (1962). "Control of Isoleucine, Valine, and Leucine Biosynthesis, I. Multi-Valent Repression". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 48 (10): 1804–1808. Bibcode:1962PNAS...48.1804F. doi:10.1073/pnas.48.10.1804. PMC 221043. PMID 13959618.
• Umbarger, H. E. (1964). "Intracellular Regulatory Mechanisms: Regulation in multicellular forms may be an elaboration upon the pattern evolved in microorganisms". Science. 145 (3633): 674–679. doi:10.1126/science.145.3633.674. ISSN 0036-8075.
• Cortese, R.; Landsberg, R.; Vonder Haar, R. A.; Umbarger, H. E.; Ames, B. N. (1974). "Pleiotropy of hisT Mutants Blocked in Pseudouridine Synthesis in tRNA: Leucine and Isoleucine-V aline Operons". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 71 (5): 1857–1861. Bibcode:1974PNAS...71.1857C. doi:10.1073/pnas.71.5.1857. PMC 388341. PMID 4151955.
• McCorkle, G. M.; Leathers, T. D.; Umbarger, H. E. (1978). "Physical organization of the ilvEDAC genes of Escherichia coli strain K-12". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 75 (1): 89–93. Bibcode:1978PNAS...75...89M. doi:10.1073/pnas.75.1.89. PMC 411189. PMID 343113.
• Umbarger, H. E. (1978). "Amino Acid Biosynthesis and its Regulation". Annual Review of Biochemistry. 47: 533–606. doi:10.1146/annurev.bi.47.070178.002533. PMID 354503.
• Nargang, F. E.; Subrahmanyam, C. S.; Umbarger, H. E. (1980). "Nucleotide sequence of ilvGEDA operon attenuator region of Escherichia coli". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 77 (4): 1823–1827. Bibcode:1980PNAS...77.1823N. doi:10.1073/pnas.77.4.1823. PMC 348600. PMID 6990415.