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Nobel Jews

Nobel Prize in Chemistry · 1972

William H. Stein

He helped build the tools that measure proteins' building blocks, then used them to spell out the first complete sequence of an enzyme.

The Nobel citation: “for their contribution to the understanding of the connection between chemical structure and catalytic activity of the active centre of the ribonuclease molecule”
Born
June 25, 1911, New York, NY, USA
Died
February 2, 1980, New York, NY, USA
Shared with
Christian Anfinsen, Stanford Moore
Affiliation at the time
Rockefeller University, USA

Chemistry prize

1972

Shared with 2 other laureates.

Age that year

61years

Born in 1911.

Sources cited

23

Fact-checked September 24, 2026.

  • He nearly quit science after a poor first year of graduate chemistry at Harvard, until someone suggested he try biochemistry instead.
  • In 1949 a full amino acid analysis of one protein took him and Moore about two weeks. The automatic analyzer they built by 1958 did it overnight.
  • His partnership with Stanford Moore lasted about 40 years. Moore wrote that Stein could improve anything Moore drafted.
  • In 1933 his father was treasurer of a committee that raised money to place scholars ousted from German universities in American jobs.
  • In 1969 Guillain-Barré syndrome left him quadriplegic. He shared the Nobel Prize three years later and kept advising his lab until his death in 1980.

The breakthrough

Reading an enzyme's chemistry: the amino acid analyzer and ribonuclease

Proteins are chains of building blocks called amino acids, about 20 kinds in all. Enzymes are proteins that speed up the chemistry of life. Around 1940, there was no reliable, practical way to measure exactly how many of each amino acid a protein contained. Stein and his partner Stanford Moore fixed that. They broke proteins into their amino acids and ran the mixture through columns, first of potato starch and later of resin beads. Each amino acid came out at its own time, and a reagent called ninhydrin turned it blue so it could be measured. By 1958 their machine did the whole job automatically, overnight. Next they took apart ribonuclease, a small enzyme from cattle that cuts up RNA. It is a chain of 124 amino acids. Think of a sentence cut into overlapping scraps: they read each scrap and matched the overlaps until the whole sentence appeared. Together with Christian Anfinsen's team at the National Institutes of Health, they produced the first complete amino acid sequence of any enzyme. Finally they asked where the enzyme does its work. They noticed that a few amino acids at the working spot, the active site, were unusually reactive. By tagging them with a chemical, they showed that two histidines, far apart on the chain, fold together about 5 angstroms apart to form the site. X-ray pictures of the enzyme later confirmed their prediction.[1],[3],[4],[5],[6],[7]

“the development of methods grew out of a need rather than a particular desire to develop methods as ends in themselves”
William H. Stein, From the autobiographical sketch he wrote for the Nobel Foundation in 1972, explaining why he and Moore built their own instruments.[2]

What it meant for humanity

Stein's impact came mostly through tools. When he and Stanford Moore started, there was no reliable, practical method for measuring the full amino acid makeup of a protein. Their methods made that measurement routine and quantitative for every laboratory. Their automatic fraction collector, which counted drops with a light beam, became the model for commercial versions found in biochemistry labs around the world. The automatic amino acid analyzer of 1958 cut an analysis from days to an overnight run, and commercial successors brought it to about an hour. Moore called these machines the first widely used form of high-performance liquid chromatography, and they found a worldwide market. The pair made their methods easy to copy: they published every practical detail and sent preprints to colleagues who wanted to test the directions. The methods also crossed into medicine. Stein adapted them to measure amino acids in blood, urine and tissue, and his laboratory identified new normal components of human urine and brain. Measuring the amino acids in blood and urine became a common way for doctors to diagnose disease. In 2018, a technical standard from the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics said the most common way to measure amino acids for diagnosing inherited metabolic diseases was still ion-exchange chromatography with ninhydrin detection, the approach Stein and Moore pioneered. Their ribonuclease work also changed how scientists think about enzymes. Using chemistry alone, they located the key parts of an enzyme's active site and predicted how they sat in space before X-ray crystallography could show it. It showed that, once a sequence was known, chemistry alone could reveal much about how an enzyme does its job.

  • The automatic amino acid analyzer, built in 1958 with Darrel Spackman, cut a protein analysis from days to an overnight run. Commercial successors did it in about an hour and sold worldwide.[3],[6]
  • Ribonuclease became the first enzyme whose complete amino acid sequence was written out, through the combined work of the Stein-Moore laboratory and Christian Anfinsen's group at NIH.[5],[6],[7]
  • Using chemistry alone, Stein and Moore placed two histidines at ribonuclease's active site about 5 angstroms apart. X-ray crystallography in 1967 confirmed the picture.[3],[6],[7]
  • A 2018 clinical laboratory standard said ion-exchange chromatography with ninhydrin detection, the approach they pioneered, was still the most common way to measure amino acids when diagnosing inherited metabolic diseases.[6],[17],[18]
  • Their automatic fraction collector, which counted drops with a light beam, became the model for the commercial fraction collectors found in biochemistry labs worldwide.[2],[6],[7]

Impact in numbers

Stein's contribution was a way of working more than a single cure. With Moore he turned protein chemistry from guesswork into measurement: reliable amino acid analysis, automated instruments, and the first complete sequence and active-site map of an enzyme. The tools spread quickly because the pair published every practical detail so that others could repeat them. Descendants of their analyzer still run in research and clinical laboratories, where amino acid profiles help diagnose inherited metabolic diseases. We make no quantified claim. The analyzer and the ribonuclease work fed into countless later discoveries, diagnoses and products, but those passed through many hands, and DNA sequencing later took over part of the job of reading protein sequences. Any count of lives saved or dollars earned credited to Stein would be guesswork.

Fundamental scienceHealthTechnology

No number is given here on purpose. Some contributions cannot be counted honestly, and we would rather describe them than invent a figure.

The double edge

We found no documented harm from Stein's own discoveries, but two episodes deserve mention. During World War II his laboratory studied mustard gas and nitrogen mustards under a government contract. The aim was defensive: to find treatments for gas injuries. Later, a chance observation in his laboratory, that traces of cyanate in urea solutions chemically alter proteins, helped inspire tests of sodium cyanate as a treatment for sickle-cell disease. Stein and Moore presented the idea in their 1972 Nobel lecture as a possible benefit to patients. In clinical studies, however, some patients who took the drug for long periods developed nerve damage. Stein did not run those trials.

  • Minor

    Sodium cyanate for sickle-cell disease caused nerve damage

    A side reaction noticed in the Stein-Moore lab showed that cyanate modifies proteins. Anthony Cerami, a Rockefeller student, and James Manning of the Stein-Moore lab went on to study cyanate against sickle-cell disease, and the 1972 Nobel lecture called it a hopeful lead. In 1974-75 reports, patients on long-term sodium cyanate developed motor and sensory nerve damage. Stein did not conduct the trials.[3],[6],[19],[20],[21],[23]

Against the odds

Stein grew up wealthy and well connected, and no source records antisemitic barriers in his own career. His parents were leaders of New York's Jewish charities. He did come of age as elite colleges moved to limit Jewish students. In 1922 Harvard's president publicly proposed restricting Jewish admissions, and Columbia used regional quotas to cut its Jewish share from 40 to 22 percent between 1920 and 1922. Stein entered Harvard in 1929, following his father and older brother. Nazi persecution touched his career more directly. His mentor, the leading protein chemist Max Bergmann, was forced out of his Dresden institute because he was Jewish and reached the Rockefeller Institute as a refugee in 1934. Stein joined him in 1937, and the Stein-Moore partnership grew out of that laboratory. In 1933 Stein's father was treasurer of an emergency committee raising money to place scholars ousted from German universities in American posts. The hardest blow Stein faced was physical. In the summer of 1969, Guillain-Barré syndrome left him quadriplegic. He barely survived and spent a year in the hospital. He shared the Nobel Prize in 1972 and kept advising his laboratory, making the trip to his office by wheelchair when he could, until his death in 1980.

  • 1929

    Quota

    He entered Harvard in 1929, seven years after its president publicly proposed limiting Jewish admissions; Columbia had cut its Jewish share from 40 to 22 percent in 1920-22. Our sources do not say the limits affected him. His father and older brother were Harvard men.[6],[7],[14]

  • 1934

    Other

    His mentor Max Bergmann was forced out of his Dresden institute after the Nazis' 1933 civil service law and came to the Rockefeller Institute as a refugee in 1934. Stein joined his laboratory in 1937. In 1933 Stein's father was treasurer of a committee placing ousted German scholars in American posts.[6],[7],[11],[15],[16]

  • 1969

    Other

    After falling ill at a Copenhagen symposium in the summer of 1969, he developed a severe case of Guillain-Barré syndrome. He barely survived, spent a year in the hospital and remained quadriplegic for the last 11 years of his life.[6],[7]

Jewish background

Both parents JewishCulturally Jewish

Stein was born into a wealthy Jewish family in New York. His father, Fred M. Stein, retired from banking in 1917 to do Red Cross war work, then gave his time to public health and Jewish charities: he sat on the Jewish Federation board from 1917 and became president of Montefiore Hospital in 1930. His mother, Beatrice Borg, daughter of a German-born banker, was a Federation director and chaired a group running summer play schools. His father's cousin was Leo Stein, brother of the writer Gertrude Stein. Stein was a trustee of Montefiore and sat on the medical advisory board of the Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School. We found no source on his religious practice.[2],[6],[8],[9],[10],[12],[13],[22]

Key dates

  1. June 25, 1911

    Born in New York City, the second of three children of Fred M. Stein and Beatrice Borg Stein.[1],[2],[6]

  2. 1929

    Enters Harvard College, following his father and older brother. He graduates with a chemistry major in 1933.[2],[6],[7]

  3. 1934

    After an undistinguished year of graduate chemistry at Harvard, transfers to biochemistry at Columbia's College of Physicians and Surgeons.[2],[6]

  4. 1936

    Marries Phoebe Hockstader while still a graduate student. They have three sons.[2],[6]

  5. 1937

    Completes his Columbia Ph.D. on the amino acids of elastin late in 1937 and joins Max Bergmann's laboratory at the Rockefeller Institute.[2],[6],[7]

  6. 1939

    Stanford Moore joins the Bergmann laboratory. Bergmann suggests the two pool their efforts, starting a partnership of about 40 years.[6],[7]

  7. 1942

    Amino acid work stops for wartime research on mustard gas, aimed at finding treatments for its injuries.[6],[7]

  8. 1945

    After Bergmann's death, Rockefeller director Herbert Gasser gives Stein and Moore a trial chance to run their own research program.[2],[6],[7]

  9. 1958

    With Darrel Spackman, Stein and Moore describe the automatic amino acid analyzer, which completes an analysis overnight.[3],[6],[7]

  10. 1960

    The complete amino acid sequence of ribonuclease, the first for any enzyme, is finished, with key results also from Anfinsen's NIH group.[5],[6],[7]

  11. 1963

    Chemical tagging experiments show that histidines 12 and 119 sit together at ribonuclease's active site.[3],[7]

  12. 1969

    Struck by Guillain-Barré syndrome after a symposium in Copenhagen. He survives but remains quadriplegic.[6],[7]

  13. 1972

    Shares the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Stanford Moore and Christian B. Anfinsen for work on ribonuclease.[1],[4]

  14. February 2, 1980

    Dies suddenly of heart failure at his home in New York, aged 68.[6],[7]

Sources

  1. 1.William H. Stein - Facts · NobelPrize.org (Nobel Prize Outreach)
  2. 2.William H. Stein - Biographical · NobelPrize.org (Nobel Foundation), 1972
  3. 3.The Chemical Structures of Pancreatic Ribonuclease and Deoxyribonuclease (combined Nobel Lecture of Moore and Stein, 11 December 1972) · NobelPrize.org (Nobel Foundation), 1972
  4. 4.Press release: The 1972 Nobel Prize in Chemistry · NobelPrize.org (Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences), 1972
  5. 5.The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1972 - Award ceremony speech by Professor Bo Malmstrom · NobelPrize.org (Nobel Foundation), 1972
  6. 6.William H. Stein, 1911-1980: A Biographical Memoir, by Stanford Moore · National Academy of Sciences, Biographical Memoirs vol. 56, 1987
  7. 7.Stein, William Howard (Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography entry by Emil L. Smith) · Charles Scribner's Sons, via Encyclopedia.com, 2008
  8. 8.Fred Stein Succeeds Sol G. Rosenbaum As President of Montefiore Hospital · Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 1930
  9. 9.Jews Cooperate with Child Study Organization · Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 1923
  10. 10.Three Jews Named to Hospital Council · Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 1935
  11. 11.Emergency Committee Seeks to Place Ousted German Scholars Here · Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 1933
  12. 12.1903 & 1937 - Beatrice Celia Borg & Cecelia Borg Stein (And the Bride Wore... exhibit) · Historic Costume & Textiles Collection, Ohio State University (Fashion2Fiber)
  13. 13.Leo Stein · Wikipedia
  14. 14.How Jewish Quotas Began, by Stephen Steinberg · Commentary, 1971
  15. 15.Max Bergmann · Wikipedia
  16. 16.Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service · United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  17. 17.1972 Nobel Prize in Chemistry (William H. Stein and Stanford Moore) · The Rockefeller University
  18. 18.Laboratory analysis of amino acids, 2018 revision: a technical standard of the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics (ACMG) · Genetics in Medicine (via PubMed), 2018
  19. 19.Sodium cyanate as a potential treatment for sickle-cell disease (Gillette, Peterson, Lu, Cerami) · New England Journal of Medicine (via PubMed), 1974
  20. 20.Axonal degeneration in sodium cyanate-induced neuropathy (Ohnishi, Peterson, Dyck) · Archives of Neurology (via PubMed), 1975
  21. 21.Sodium cyanate induced polyneuropathy in patients with sickle-cell disease (Peterson et al.) · Annals of Internal Medicine (via PubMed), 1974
  22. 22.Jewish Nobel Prize Winners in Chemistry · JINFO.ORG
  23. 23.Peripheral nerve pathology in sickle cell disease mice · Pain Reports (PMC), 2019

Fact-checked on September 24, 2026 by a separate AI fact-checking pass that re-opened the sources, with 7 corrections made. How we check

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