Medical Dictionary

Warburg apparatus

noun War·burg apparatus \ˈwr-ˌbərg-, ˈvär-ˌbrk-\

Medical Definition of WARBURG APPARATUS

:  an analytic apparatus that employs a manometer to determine changes in the amount of gas produced or absorbed by a test sample kept at constant temperature in a flask of constant gas volume and is used especially in the study of cellular respiration and metabolism and of some enzymatic reactions (as fermentation)

Biographical Note for WARBURG APPARATUS

War·burg \ˈvär-ˌbrk\ 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 of manometry 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 Nobel Prize 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 smaller amounts of oxygen than that of normal cells.
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