Michel-Alexandre Macheboeu

October 19, 1900 (age 52)

Clermont-Ferrand, France

Macheboeuf entered the Paseur Institute, working in Gabriel Bertrand’s laboratory: he succeeded Bertrand as head of the department of biochemistry in 1942. His teaching abilities were recognized by professorships at the University of Bordeaux and at the Sorbonne. His early scientific work, as Rockefeller fellow, was done under S.P.L. Sørensen in Copenhagen. They jointly investigated the structure of egg albumin and, in 1928, demonstrated that it is a mixture of phosphoproteins to which phosphorus is strongly bound. He taught at the Sorbonne, was an adjunct professor in Lille in 1937 and in Bordeaux in 1937, and in 1950 he became a professor at the Sorbonne. Shortly afterward Macheboeuf made his fundamental discovery of the linkage between the lipides and the proteins of blood plasma: the protido-lipidic "cenapse." Blood plasma contains large amounts of lipides, which, when isolated, are insoluble in water. In the blood plasma they form soluble cenapses or lipide-protein complexes. Lipide and protein molecules are then strongly bound by their homologous carbon chains - that is, by their water-repellent groups. These groups are somewhat mutually neutralized, and thus the lipide protein cenapse becomes water-soluble. This concept is now universally accepted. It had immediate important clinical application: the lipide-albumin index, the amount of lipides that remain in aqueous solution with 100 grams of albumin. In normal blood, this index is about 12, but it reaches 60 or more in cases of lipoidic nephrosis. Macheboeuf also showed that alteration of the normal amount of cenapses modifies the exchange of water and electrolytes between blood and tissues and thus is one of the major causes of edema. Macheboeuf was among the first to investigate the effect of ultrahigh pressures. He found that bacteria and viruses are permanently inactivated above 6,000 atmospheres, and enzymes resist up to 12,000, while bacterial spores are killed only above 22,000 atmospheres. Macheboeuf headed an active laboratory that produced fruitful results in many areas: plasma lipoproteins, mitochondrial enzymes, and the effect of antibiotics upon bacterial metabolic enzymes. Thus Macheboeuf was a source of inspiration to biochemists, French and foreign alike, until his untimely death (of lung ailment).

Michel-Alexandre Macheboeu

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biochemist scientist

Background

Macheboeu was born on October 19, 1900, in Clermont-Ferrand, France, the son of Elie Macheboeuf, a distinguished physician.

Education

Macheboeuf studied medicine at Clermont-Ferrand and at Paris. In 1927 he received his doctorate in medicine and in 1928 in natural sciences.

Career

Macheboeuf entered the Paseur Institute, working in Gabriel Bertrand’s laboratory: he succeeded Bertrand as head of the department of biochemistry in 1942. His teaching abilities were recognized by professorships at the University of Bordeaux and at the Sorbonne. His early scientific work, as Rockefeller fellow, was done under S.P.L. Sørensen in Copenhagen. They jointly investigated the structure of egg albumin and, in 1928, demonstrated that it is a mixture of phosphoproteins to which phosphorus is strongly bound. He taught at the Sorbonne, was an adjunct professor in Lille in 1937 and in Bordeaux in 1937, and in 1950 he became a professor at the Sorbonne.

Shortly afterward Macheboeuf made his fundamental discovery of the linkage between the lipides and the proteins of blood plasma: the protido-lipidic "cenapse." Blood plasma contains large amounts of lipides, which, when isolated, are insoluble in water. In the blood plasma they form soluble cenapses or lipide-protein complexes. Lipide and protein molecules are then strongly bound by their homologous carbon chains - that is, by their water-repellent groups. These groups are somewhat mutually neutralized, and thus the lipide protein cenapse becomes water-soluble. This concept is now universally accepted. It had immediate important clinical application: the lipide-albumin index, the amount of lipides that remain in aqueous solution with 100 grams of albumin. In normal blood, this index is about 12, but it reaches 60 or more in cases of lipoidic nephrosis. Macheboeuf also showed that alteration of the normal amount of cenapses modifies the exchange of water and electrolytes between blood and tissues and thus is one of the major causes of edema.

Macheboeuf was among the first to investigate the effect of ultrahigh pressures. He found that bacteria and viruses are permanently inactivated above 6,000 atmospheres, and enzymes resist up to 12,000, while bacterial spores are killed only above 22,000 atmospheres.

Macheboeuf headed an active laboratory that produced fruitful results in many areas: plasma lipoproteins, mitochondrial enzymes, and the effect of antibiotics upon bacterial metabolic enzymes. Thus Macheboeuf was a source of inspiration to biochemists, French and foreign alike, until his untimely death (of lung ailment).

Achievements

Macheboeuf made a major contribution to the immunochemistry of the tubercle bacillus. He found in this bacillus different groups of important substances: a precipitatory factor which he identified as a specific phosphatidic acid, strong antigens, and toxic substances which cancel out the effect of the strong antigens because they inhibit the activity of the antibody-producing cells. Thus the essential difficulties of antituberculosis vaccine manufacture were precisely defined.

Membership

Academie des Sciences , France

1953

Connections

Macheboeuf married Simone Bezou; they had three daughters.

Father:: Elie Macheboeuf
Spouse:: Simone Bezou
Friend:: Kaj Ulrik Linderstrøm-Lang
colleague:: Soren Peder Lauritz Sorensen

References

Dictionary of Scientific Biography Volume 7
1973

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College/University

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Achievements

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Academie des Sciences

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Connections

colleague: Soren Peder Lauritz Sorensen

Connections

Michel-Alexandre Macheboeu

Background

Education

Career

Achievements

Membership

Connections

References

Born

Died

Nationality

Ethnicity

Career

1919

1937

1937

1950

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