Otto Heinrich Warburg

Otto Heinrich Warburg (1883 to 1970) was a German physiologist and physician who was the sole recipient of the 1931 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, awarded for his discovery of the nature and mode of action of the respiratory enzyme. Born in Freiburg im Breisgau, he took a doctorate in chemistry in Berlin in 1906 and a medical degree in Heidelberg in 1911. At the Naples Marine Biological Station he showed that the respiration of sea urchin eggs rises as much as sixfold after fertilization. He later directed the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Cell Physiology and studied the metabolism of tumors, finding that animal tumors produce large quantities of lactic acid. He served as a cavalry officer in the First World War and was nominated for the Nobel Prize 48 times.