Peer Comments
'. . . in 1928, the year in which I graduated from Harvard Medical School (and) was starting biochemical research on muscle proteins(,) I already knew of the important work of Dr Cyrus H Fiske and Dr SubbaRow on their excellent method for analytical determination of phosphates which they had just used in their great discovery of Phosphocreatine, one of the substances of crucial importance in the metabolism of muscle. They were then engaged in an even more important discovery, the isolation and characterisation of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) which plays the central role in the energy metabolism of living organisms. Unlike the work on Phosphocreatine, of which they were the sole discoverers, the discovery of ATP was also made independently by Dr Karl Lohmann in Berlin in the laboratory of Otto Meyerhof. At the time and later, many people gave the credit of the discovery only to Lohmann but the evidence is quite clear that Fiske and SubbaRow discovered it independently.'
'Dr Yellapragada SubbaRow was interested in the chemistry of the liver and knew what liver will do from the medical point of view because he came not infrequently to the clinic in the Peter Bent Brigham hospital and saw us testing the material on the patients. That is what we needed. He contributed to the further refinement of 1 cc liver extract, getting out some of the impurities present. He was a very wise, capable and earnest individual whose heart was in his work. My impression was that that was practically his life. He dedicated himself to the isolation of the anti-pernicious anaemia factor in liver and went all out for it.'
'Dr SubbaRow was unique in that he could take dreams and people and make reality. I wished to honour him as a great man who was responsible more than any other person form developing the broad spectrum antibiotics which still are the most useful antibiotics today'
'Such an individual is perhaps born once in a thousand years or more. I do not believe there is any other person in the documented history of biology and medicine who made such a large number of basic discoveries that are applied so widely.'
Praise of Dr SubbaRow by Academic and Popular Journals and Newspapers :
He drove himself and others unmercifully to achieve success and recognition in a society that regarded him as an alien.
A great scientist with a quarter century of achievements in phosphate compounds, vitamins, antivitamins and antibiotics.
Little known biochemical prodigy.
Outstanding scientist
He bequeathed a rich legacy to humanity.
A man truly deserving of the highest accolades including, perhaps, a Nobel Prize.
A true humanist.
His noble nature obscured his genius from the public eye.
A legend during his lifetime.
A man of all sciences.
A man of intense feelings and commitments.
Pushed antibiotic & vitamin research to the frontiers.
A genius.
Wizard of Wonder Drugs.
A giant among scientists.
A world citizen.
Dhanvantari incarnate.
A true, sincere scientist.
Millions owe their good health to his many discoveries.
Vitamins and antibiotics he and his teams developed continue to benefit millions all over the world.