Karl August Folkers (September 1, 1906 – December 7, 1997) was an American biochemist who made major contributions to the isolation and identification of bioactive natural products.[2][1]
Folkers graduated from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Illinois in 1928. In 1986, the institution awarded him its Alumni Achievement Award.[3]
His career was mainly spent at Merck. He played a prominent role in the isolation of vitamin B12 in 1947, which is one of the most structural complex of the vitamins.[4] As a Merck Pharmaceuticals research team, Folkers, Fern P. Rathe, and Edward Anthony Kaczka were the first to isolate the antibiotic cathomycin in 1955.[5] His team also isolated the antibiotic cycloserine.[6] In 1958 his Merck team determined the structure of coenzyme Q10.[7]
He later served as director of the Institute of Biomedical Research at the University of Texas at Austin, where he was also Ashbel Smith Professor of Chemistry.[3]
^Shive, William (2002). "Karl August Folkers, September 1, 1906 – December 9, 1997". Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences. 81: 100–14. PMID12661556.
^Narins, Brigham. (2001). Notable Scientists From 1900 to the Present, Volume 2. Gale Group. p. 749. ISBN9780787617530 "Folkers isolated vitamin B12 in 1947, and spent the following eight years elucidating its complex- atom structure; it is used in the treatment of pernicious anemia. He synthesized pantothenic acid in 1940, and biotin in 1945."
^Kuehl, Frederick A.; Wolf, Frank J.; Trenner, Nelson R.; Peck, Robert L.; Buhs, Rudolf P.; Howe, Eugene; Putter, Irvin; Hunnewell, Berl D.; Ormond, Robert; Downing, George; Lyons, John E.; Newstead, E.; Chaiet, Louis; Folkers, Karl (1955). "D-4-amino-3-isoxazolidone, a new antibiotic". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 77 (8): 2344–2345. doi:10.1021/ja01613a105.
Stammer, Charles H.; Wilson, Andrew N.; Holly, Frederick W.; Folkers, Karl (1955). "Synthesis of D-4-amino-3-isoxazolidone". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 77 (8): 2346–2347. doi:10.1021/ja01613a107.
