Herschel K. Mitchell
| Herschel K. Mitchell | |
|---|---|
| Born | Herschel Kenworthy Mitchell November 27, 1913 Los Nietos, California |
| Died | April 1, 2000 (aged 86) Pasadena, California Stroke |
| Nationality | American |
| Fields | Biochemistry |
| Institutions | California Institute of Technology |
| Alma mater | University of Texas |
| Known for | Co-discovery of folic acid, study of heat shock |
Herschel Kenworthy Mitchell (November 27, 1913 – April 1, 2000) was an American professor of biochemistry who spent most of his career on the faculty at the California Institute of Technology. He was one of many researchers interested in vitamin B6 in the early 1940s and is credited as one of the discoverers of folic acid. He later focused his research on Drosophila (fruit flies), in particular the genetics and biochemistry of the heat shock response.
Mitchell was born on November 27, 1913, in Los Nietos, California. He received a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Pomona College in 1936, a master's degree from Oregon State College in 1938, and a Ph.D. from the University of Texas in 1941, where he worked with Roger J. Williams and Esmond Emerson Snell in their work on vitamin B6 and folic acid. He is recognized as a co-discoverer of folic acid, which the three scientists extracted from four tons of processed spinach.
In 1943 Mitchell moved from Texas to Stanford University to work as a research associate with George Beadle, who at the time was studying the genetics of metabolism in Neurospora (a fungus that served as a model organism). When Beadle moved his research group from Stanford to Caltech in 1946, Mitchell moved with him, along with other research fellows such as Norman Horowitz. Trained as a chemist, Mitchell used this experience to learn about molecular genetics, which he would apply to other model organisms in his future research.
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