Felix Hoppe-Seyler

Ernst Felix Immanuel Hoppe-Seyler (1825 to 1895) was a German physiologist and chemist regarded as the principal founder of biochemistry and molecular biology as disciplines. Born Felix Hoppe at Freyburg an der Unstrut, he trained as a physician at Halle and Leipzig, took his medical doctorate at Berlin in 1851 and worked as an assistant to Rudolf Virchow, but he preferred research to clinical practice. He held posts in Greifswald, Tübingen and Strasbourg, where he headed Germany's only department of biochemistry at the time. He was the first to describe the absorption spectrum of the red blood pigment, recognised that oxygen binds to hemoglobin in red cells, crystallised hemoglobin and confirmed it contains iron. He also studied chlorophyll, isolated proteins, purified lecithin, and in 1877 founded the Zeitschrift für Physiologische Chemie. He took the Hoppe-Seyler name after being adopted in 1864 by his brother-in-law.