Medical Dictionary
Main Entry:
War·burg apparatus Pronunciation:
'wor-"b&rg-, 'vär-"burk- Function:
noun : a complex respirometer consisting of a battery ofconstant-volume manometer-flask units with a mechanically agitated constant-temperature bath and used especially in the study of cellular respiration and metabolism or fermentation and other enzymaticreactions
Waráburg /'vär-"burk,/ Otto Heinrich (1883–1970), German biochemist. Warburg is considered by some the most accomplished biochemist of all time.He received doctorates in both medicine and chemistry. After World War I he began investigating the process by which oxygen is consumed in the cells of living organisms. He introduced the use ofmanometry as a means of studying the rates at which slices of living tissue take up oxygen. His research led to the identification of the role of the cytochromes. In 1931 Warburg was awarded the NobelPrize for Physiology or Medicine for his research on respiratory enzymes. He also investigated photosynthesis and was the first to observe that the growth of malignant cells requires markedly smalleramounts of oxygen than that of normal cells.
