Background
Frederick Hopkins was born on June 20, 1861, in Eastbourne, Sussex, England. Hopkins’ father used to sell books, but he also had a deep interest in science.
St. Paul's Cathedral and the City of London School
The original Guy's Hospital building with its courtyard facing St. Thomas Street
Nobel Prize
Order of Merit
Frederick Hopkins was born on June 20, 1861, in Eastbourne, Sussex, England. Hopkins’ father used to sell books, but he also had a deep interest in science.
His father left this world at the time when Fredrick was still a toddler and his mother took care of his early education in Eastbourne. In the year 1871, the family moved to Enfield in London and the young lad took admission at the City of London School.
At the City of London School, Hopkins proved to be a bright student who excelled in academics and in the year 1874 he managed to get a first class in his favourite subject, chemistry graduating at the young age of 17.
After leaving school he worked as a clerk in an insurance firm and then became an associate at the Institute of Chemistry, where his findings on poisons were immensely appreciated. In the meantime, he took advantage of the University of London External Programme and earned his Bachelor of Science degree in 1888.
In the year 1889, Frederick won the Sir William Gull Studentship and took admission to Guy’s Hospital to study medicine. It was five years later that he graduated with a degree.
In the year 1894 he was appointed as a teacher at Guy’s Hospital, where he taught toxicology and around this time he also published an important paper on blood albumins with S. N. Pinkus.
It was in the year 1898 that Sir Henry Foster invited Frederick to work at the famous Cambridge University to work on the research at the Physiological Laboratory at the university. He was specifically asked to work on the chemical side of things as far as physiology was concerned.
In 1901 Hopkins discovered the amino acid tryptophan, isolated it from protein, and eventually (1906 - 1907) showed that it and certain other amino acids (known as essential amino acids) cannot be manufactured by certain animals from other nutrients and must be supplied in the diet. Noticing that rats failed to grow on a diet of artificial milk but grew rapidly when a small quantity of cow’s milk was added to their daily ration, Hopkins realized that no animal can live on a mixture of pure protein, fat, and carbohydrate, even when mineral salts are added, and termed the missing factors - later called vitamins - "accessory substances."
In 1907 Hopkins and Sir Walter Fletcher laid the foundations for a modern understanding of the chemistry of muscular contraction when they demonstrated that working muscle accumulates lactic acid. Fifteen years later, Hopkins isolated from living tissue the tripeptide (three amino acids linked in sequence) glutathione and showed that it is vital to the utilization of oxygen by the cell.
Hopkins spent most of his career at Cambridge University (1898 - 1943). He passed away in Cambridge on May 16, 1947. His burial took place at the Parish of the Ascension Burial Ground.
In 1898 Frederick Gowland Hopkins married Jessie Anne Stephens. The couple had one son and two daughters.