Wu Xian
Wu Xian
Wu Xian (1893.11.24-1959.08.08) was born in Fuzhou, Fujian Province. Biochemist, nutritionist, medical educator. First member of Academia Sinica, visiting professor of University of Alabama.
In 1911, Wu Xian was admitted to Tsinghua preparatory school in Beijing to study in the United States; in 1912, he went to the United States to study Shipbuilding Engineering at MIT, and then changed to chemistry; in 1916, he received a Bachelor of Science degree and then remained as a teaching assistant; in 1917, he was admitted as a graduate student by the Department of biochemistry of Harvard Medical School; in 1919, he received a doctorate; in 1920, he returned to China to teach in the Department of biochemistry of Peking Union Medical College; in 1946, he served as a member of the Central Health Council In 1947, at the invitation of UNESCO, he went to Britain to attend the 17th International Conference on physiology; in 1949, he was employed as a visiting professor at the University of Alabama; in the autumn of 1952, he resigned because of heart disease.
Wu Xian has made many contributions to clinical biochemistry. The blood analysis system method proposed by him and Otto Folin was the most important contribution of clinical biochemistry at that time. He pioneered the use of tungstic acid to remove all proteins from blood samples. A reasonable protein denaturation theory was first proposed. In addition, the labeled antigens were used to study immunochemistry. He also trained the first generation of biochemists and nutritionists in China.
Life of the characters
Family background
In 1893, Wu Xian was born in Fuzhou, Fujian Province. His grandfather Wu Weizhen (1831-1903) was a big local salt merchant. His father Wu Xiaokeng (1874-1954) and his mother Liang Rongfu (1875-1939) had three brothers and sisters in his family. He ranked second. Wu Xian spent his childhood at his grandmother's home. At the age of six, he returned to his parents and began to study the classics in an old school.
Because of his intelligence and diligence, he was a scholar and took part in the national imperial examination in 1904. In 1906, he entered the preparatory class of Fujian higher school (the predecessor of Fuzhou No.1 Middle School) and received new education. After four years of study, he passed the examination organized by the Qing government,
In the spring of 1911, he entered the preparatory class for studying in the United States (the predecessor of Tsinghua University). After a semester of training in the United States, Wu Xian, as one of the 62 members of the first class of the University, went to the United States to study by boat from Shanghai in August of that year. On September 4, she arrived in San Francisco to study at MIT. Before leaving, he went home to visit his relatives and married a girl whom his grandmother had never met.
Study in the United States
Wu Xian's major in the United States was naval Shipbuilding Engineering at first, and his idea of choosing this major was formed as early as his middle school days. Fuzhou, Wu Xian's hometown, was the first area to develop shipbuilding industry in China. As early as 1886, Mawei shipyard was founded, and there was also a Foochow Naval Academy. At that time, shipbuilding and Western learning were very popular there. The failure of the Sino Japanese War of 1894-1895 had a great impact on the local area. Many teachers in Wu Xian's school graduated from the former shipping school. Influenced by them, Wu Xian was determined to learn shipbuilding to help China rebuild its navy. After arriving in the United States, he quickly overcame all kinds of difficulties in his studies through hard work. However, in his first summer vacation, he read a lot on a farm in New Hampshire, which changed his interest and ambition. Especially influenced by T. H. Huxley's article "the material basis of life", he began to pay attention to biochemical problems.
In September 1913, he changed his major to chemistry with a minor in biology.
In June 1916, Wu Xian graduated from university with a bachelor's degree. After that, he continued to study organic chemistry at the school and served as an experimental assistant.
In the autumn of 1917, he was admitted to the Graduate School of Harvard University. He studied blood chemistry under the guidance of Otto fo1in (1867-1934, a famous American biochemist). In less than two years, he completed his doctoral thesis as a system of blood analysis, which is a major work that established Wu Xian's position in the field of biochemistry. After the article was published under the joint signatures of Fulin and Wu Xian, it immediately attracted the attention of biochemical and clinical chemistry circles, and was considered to "trigger a revolution in blood chemistry".
In 1919, after obtaining his doctor's degree, Wu Xian engaged in a one-year postdoctoral research with Fulin. During this period, he further completed a series of research on blood chemical analysis. After these studies were published, they became classic works of blood chemistry (his name is widely known in biochemical circles in the form of "Fulin Wu"), among which, he completed the improved method of quantitative analysis of blood glucose alone, which is called "Fulin Wu" Methods the blood volume was less, the operation was simple and the data was accurate, which was much better than the conventional Benedict method at that time. He knew that his tutor and Professor Benedict were good friends, but there was a contradictory and complex relationship on academic issues, so he didn't tell Flynn in his research. When he asked the teacher to look over his finished paper, Flynn excitedly told him that this research should get a second doctoral degree. Later, the academic circles believed that without Wu Xian's improved blood glucose determination method, the later discovery of insulin would be greatly hindered.
Apply to return to China
In the spring of 1920, Wu Xian returned to China as an assistant professor of physiology and chemistry in Peking Union Medical College. As soon as he returned to China, he went to visit his parents in his hometown of Fuzhou and took his wife to live in Beijing. However, due to the different interests, Wu Xian could not make up for it after many efforts, and eventually divorced. This marriage did not give birth to half a boy and half a girl for them.
Hold a teaching post
In 1921, Wu Xiansheng was promoted to associate and presided over the teaching of physiological chemistry. Soon after that, biochemistry was separated from physiology and the Department of biochemistry was established.
On July 1, 1924, he was promoted to associate professor and served as the director of Biochemistry Department. He became the first Chinese director and one of the first three Chinese professors (the other two were Lin Kesheng and Liu Ruiheng), and was also the youngest director of the Department at that time. On February 20 of the same year, he married Ms. Yan Caiyun (1902-1993). Three days after the marriage, Wu Xian took his new wife on leave and went to New York. Wu Xian worked with Donald D. van Slyke (1883-1971, famous American biochemist) at the Rockfeller Institute for medical research, while Yan Caiyun worked in the Department of chemistry at Columbia University.
In the summer of 1925, their work ended. Before returning home, Wu and his wife went to European countries with A.B. Hastings and their young son to visit relevant laboratories, biochemists and sightseeing. Then they returned to Concord in February to continue their work.
In 1928, he was promoted to Professor, until the school was occupied and dissolved by the Japanese army in January 1942. This period was the heyday of his scientific career. He not only completed a lot of important research, but also led a high-level and efficient biochemistry discipline, making it an important base of biochemistry in China, and also had a great influence in the international academic circles. Wu Xian is not only the organizer and member of some scientific organizations and journals at home and abroad, but also one of the members of the three person leading group established by the Union Medical College from 1935 to 1937. In addition, he participated in the founding of independent review and published articles on social, political, economic and nutritional issues in China.
Forced dissolution
After Xiehe was forced to disband, Wu Xian retired from his home and "buried himself in reading, practicing calligraphy, and sorting out his works, but he never felt like fighting against Japan." In March 1944, he left Beiping and went to Chongqing to organize and lead the Nutrition Research Institute at the Central Experimental Institute of health at the southern foot of Gele Mountain in the western suburb. In July of the same year, he was sent to the United States as a nutrition expert and a Chinese representative of the United Nations Relief and rehabilitation agency (UNRRA) to attend a conference on post-war economic recovery and reconstruction. After the conference, he was there to investigate China's economic construction after the victory of the Anti Japanese war. After the victory of the Anti Japanese war in 1945, Wu Xian returned to Chongqing. He reported his trip to the United States to the government authorities, drafted a plan to further expand the development of the Nutrition Research Institute, and then returned to Peiping to reunite with his family. In the summer of 1946, he began to prepare for the establishment of the Beiping branch of the Central Experimental Hospital of health, and served as the president of the hospital.
The 17th International Congress of Physiology
In May 1947, at the invitation of UNESCO, as one of the six representatives of China, he passed through the United States to attend the 17th International Physiological Congress held in Oxford, England in July, and read the paper "denaturation rate of fatty alcohols on proteins" at the Congress. After the conference, he returned to the United States, where he made efforts to establish a "Human Biology Research Institute" in China in the future All aspects of active preparation. In January 1948, he studied mass spectrometry as a visiting professor in the Department of Biochemistry, School of internal and external medicine, Columbia University
Chinese PinYin : Wu Xian
Wu Xian
