In this biography
Quick facts
- Born
- 12 October 1865
- Died
- 17 June 1940
- Birthplace
- Manchester, United Kingdom
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Nationality
- Not independently established
- Known for
- Distinguishing components required for cell-free sugar fermentation
Why this life matters
Distinguishing components required for cell-free sugar fermentation
Timeline
Key moments
Birth
Arthur Harden was born in Manchester, United Kingdom.
Coferment paper
Published the coferment study with William John Young.
Nobel recognition
Received Nobel recognition for the work described in the official award record.
Chemical training before biological extracts
Arthur Harden was born in Manchester in 1865. He entered Owens College in 1882, studied with Henry Roscoe and graduated in chemistry in 1885. Further work with Otto Fischer at Erlangen extended his chemical training before he returned to Manchester as a lecturer. The route was initially through chemistry rather than a medical qualification. His later research used that background to make biological preparations experimentally separable, asking which substances and conditions were needed for a process that could otherwise appear to belong only to an intact organism.
A laboratory for the chemistry of fermentation
In 1897 Harden joined the British Institute of Preventive Medicine, later called the Lister Institute. He became head of its biochemical department in 1907 and worked on bacterial chemistry, fermentation and vitamins. Eduard Buchnerโs demonstration of fermentation in yeast extracts had opened a new experimental problem: what made the extract active? Hardenโs collaboration with William John Young investigated why activity could change or disappear and how it might be restored. The programme therefore examined the components of an extract rather than merely repeating that cell-free fermentation was possible.
Two requirements could be confused in one addition
Boiled yeast juice could stimulate or restore fermentation in some preparations. Harden and Young separated the effects of phosphate from a heat-stable, dialysable coferment. The experiments showed why a positive response to an added mixture was not enough to identify one active ingredient. Hardenโs 1914 book describes controls in which phosphate concentration was kept comparable while a coenzyme-containing fraction restored activity. At that stage the cofermentโs exact chemical constitution remained unresolved; later molecular knowledge should not be inserted into the early paper as its original finding.
Teaching, editing and recognition
Harden shared the 1929 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Hans von Euler-Chelpin for investigations of sugar fermentation and fermentative enzymes. He jointly edited the Biochemical Journal for many years, wrote Alcoholic Fermentation and continued research after retiring from departmental leadership in 1930. He died in 1940. His contribution helped transform an active biological juice into a set of testable chemical requirements. The lasting value is methodological as well as historical: restoring a reaction can identify a missing functional requirement before researchers know the complete structure of the substance supplying it.
Quick answers
Frequently asked questions about Arthur Harden
- Who collaborated with Harden on the coferment work?
- William John Young, coauthor of the 1906 paper.
- Was the early coferment already fully identified chemically?
- No. The operational requirement preceded the complete molecular account.
Keep exploring
Lives connected to this story
- Arthur Kornberg
Compare distinct cell-free research programmes that tested which components were required for a biochemical reaction.
Sources and further reading
Explore the evidence
These references support the biography and offer further reading. Official records, first-person accounts and independent reporting provide different perspectives; image records document attribution and licensing.
- 1. Arthur Harden, Longmans, Green, 1914; original public-domain textAlcoholic Fermentation, second edition
The chapter describes an operational coenzyme before full chemical identification; later molecular knowledge is not backdated.
- 2. Nobel Prize OutreachArthur Harden โ Nobel lecture
- 3. Nobel Prize OutreachArthur Harden โ Facts
- 4. Nobel Prize OutreachArthur Harden โ Biographical
