Hans Krebs was born in Hildesheim, Germany in 1900. In 1925 he received his Ph.D. in medicine at Hamburg and engaged in research at the Imperial Institute of Biology in Berlin and Freiburg. When the Nazis came to power, he left for England, to Cambridge University. In 1935 he moved to Sheffield University, where he studied the breathing mechanism in the cell, and from 1954 he worked at Oxford University.

In 1953 Hans Krebs won the Nobel prize in physiology or medicine together with Fritz Lippman for the discovery of the citric acid cycle in the cell, which has since been named after him – the Krebs Cycle.

The deciphering of the citric acid cycle enabled biochemists to understand an important part of the mechanism by which the cell turns food into energy. The discoveries of Hans Krebs, who passed away in 1981, are the cornerstones of modern Biochemistry.

Fritz Lipmann was born in 1899 in Koenigsberg, Germany, In 1922 he received his medical degree and in 1927 a doctorate in chemistry. From 1927 to 1931, he conducted researches at the Kaiser Willhelm Institute in Berlin, then he went to the Rockefeller Institute in New-York. When Hitler came to power he decided not to return to Germany and joined the Carlsberg Laboratories in Copenhagen, there he began researching the human metabolism.

Lipmann received the 1953 Nobel prize in physiology or medicine, together with Hans Krebs, for his studies on metabolism, especially for his discovery of co-enzyme “a”, which is essential to the production of sterol and protein in the body. Lipmann’s effort was vital, also, to the understanding of the assimilation of carbohydrates and fats.

Fritz Lipmann passed away in 1986. His contributions reflect both skilled technical ability and great theoretical ingenuity.