Michel, Hartmut

Michel, Hartmut mĭkhˈəl [key], 1948–, German biochemist, Ph.D. Univ. of Würzburg, 1977. Michel was the first person to reduce a photosynthetic action center, which is a four-protein complex, to pure crystalline form. This made it possible for Michel, Robert Huber and Johann Deisenhofer to develop a process that used X-ray technology to determine exactly the structure of such a large molecule. For this innovation the three researchers were awarded the 1988 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

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