Thomas Burr Osborne

August 5, 1859 (age 69)

Auburn, New York, United States

His career was spent at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station. His life exhibited "a single purpose, the understanding of the relationships of proteins to each other and the animal world. He began his researches upon vegetable proteins in 1888.." He published his findings in The Vegetable Proteins in 1909. That year Osborne joined forces with Lafayette Mendel to find what amino acids are necessary for the survival of the laboratory rat. At the Connecticut experimental station they developed a lab with about 200 rats whose dietary intake was carefully controlled. The program was described by J.R. Lindsey and H.J. Baker: The striking differences in amino acid composition of plant proteins, which had been documented by Osborne, suggested that possible differences might exist in their biological value. The nutritive values of various purified proteins from cereal grains and other plant sources were compared for growth and maintenance in rats. This led to supplementation of "incomplete proteins" with those amino acids limiting each foodstuff’s "biological quality" (eg Tryptophan and lysine). Casein was found to be a "complete protein", thus paving the way for the use of this protein in modern rat diets. Within a few years it was possible to list the "essential" and "nonessential" aminio acids. The science of nutrition thus evolved beyond the caloric energy of food to the structural issue of essential amino acids.

Thomas Burr Osborne

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biochemist

Background

Osborne, Thomas Burr was born on August 5, 1859 in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Son of Arthur D. and Frances Louisa (Blake) Osborne.

Education

Bachelor of Arts, Yale, 1881, special studies chemistry, Doctor of Philosophy, 1885, honorary Doctor of Science, 1910.

Career

His career was spent at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station. His life exhibited "a single purpose, the understanding of the relationships of proteins to each other and the animal world. He began his researches upon vegetable proteins in 1888.." He published his findings in The Vegetable Proteins in 1909.

That year Osborne joined forces with Lafayette Mendel to find what amino acids are necessary for the survival of the laboratory rat.

At the Connecticut experimental station they developed a lab with about 200 rats whose dietary intake was carefully controlled. The program was described by J.R. Lindsey and H.J. Baker:

The striking differences in amino acid composition of plant proteins, which had been documented by Osborne, suggested that possible differences might exist in their biological value.

The nutritive values of various purified proteins from cereal grains and other plant sources were compared for growth and maintenance in rats. This led to supplementation of "incomplete proteins" with those amino acids limiting each foodstuff’s "biological quality" (eg Tryptophan and lysine).

Casein was found to be a "complete protein", thus paving the way for the use of this protein in modern rat diets.

Within a few years it was possible to list the "essential" and "nonessential" aminio acids. The science of nutrition thus evolved beyond the caloric energy of food to the structural issue of essential amino acids.

Achievements

Thomas Burr Osborne has been listed as a noteworthy chemist by Marquis Who's Who.

Membership

Fellow American Academy Arts and Sciences. Member American Society Biological Chemists (president 1910). Gold medal, Paris, 1900.

Connections

Married Elizabeth Annah Johnson, 1886. Children: Arthur Dimon, Francis Blake (deceased).

Father:: Arthur D. Osborne
Mother:: Frances Louisa (Blake) Osborne
Spouse:: Elizabeth Annah Johnson
child:: Arthur Dimon Osborne
child:: Francis Blake Osborne (deceased)

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