Mortimer Louis Anson


Mortimer Louis Anson was an early protein scientist.
He is famous for having proposed that protein folding was a
reversible, two-state reaction, and for being the founding
editor of the journal Advances in Protein Chemistry.

Protein folding studies

Together with Alfred Mirsky, Anson was the first to propose
that conformational protein folding was a reversible process. He
later proposed that it was essentially a two-state process, i.e.,
that the folded and unfolded states were well-defined thermodynamic
states separated by a large activation energy barrier. He also
was the first to note that the energy barrier typical of folding
was small compared to the absolute magnitudes of the
energies and entropies involved and, hence,
proposed that energy and entropy were continuously traded off
during the folding process.
Anson moved to the Rockefeller Institute in 1927, where he remained
for fifteen years. He worked closely with John H. Northrop.
In 1937, Anson first purified and crystallized carboxypeptidase A, a
classic model system of protein science.

''Advances in Protein Chemistry''

Anson was the founding editor of Advances in Protein Chemistry,
which remains one of the leading journals for reviewing the state
of biochemical problems. Anson conceived the journal in long
discussions with Kurt Jacoby, who had fled Nazi Germany
and had once headed the Akademische Verlagsgesellschaft in
Leipzig.

Nutritional research

Anson was haunted by the suffering caused in the underdeveloped
world by poor nutrition, and in 1942, left a prestigious research
position at the Rockefeller Institute to investigate
biochemical and genetic methods for improving the nutrition
of foods, e.g., amino acid fortification.

Personal history

In 1945, Tim Anson married Nina Anton, who was active in the theater. Together, they had at least one daughter, Jill. Nina Anson died of a heart attack in October 1963. Tim Anson
died on 1 October 1968 of his third heart attack.
Anson was good friends with Béla Bartók, especially during Bartók's final years in America.