Oliver Howe Lowry
About
Lowry was the youngest of a family of five children. His father was a teacher and later an administrator in the Chicago public school system. His three brothers and sister all earned graduate degrees in various fields, and Lowry was inspired to emulate his siblings. He attended Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, for his undergraduate studies, having intended to major in chemical engineering. However, upon the advice of a fellow student, he ended up shifting his focus towards biochemistry.[1] After graduating from Northwestern in 1932, he enrolled at the University of Chicago, where he sought to study "physiological chemistry".[2] During his second year, a dean of the university offered Lowry admission to the university's MD-PhD program, which he accepted and from which he graduated in 1937. Despite that he earned a medical degree, Lowry never practiced medicine.[2]
After graduating from the University of Chicago with his two doctoral degrees, Lowry failed in his attempt to secure a postdoctoral fellowship. He left Chicago to work at Harvard University under A. Baird Hastings. During Lowry's time at Harvard, Hastings was able to arrange for Lowry to work for five months at the Carlsberg Laboratory in Copenhagen, Denmark, where he worked with Kaj Ulrik Linderstrøm-Lang. By 1942, Otto Bessey persuaded his friend Lowry to join him at the newly established Public Health Research Institute in New York City, where Lowry would work until 1947.[1]
In 1947, Washington University in St. Louis invited Lowry to head its Department of Pharmacology despite the fact that Lowry had never taken a course in pharmacology and his research was only tangentially related to that field. Nevertheless, Lowry served as the department head for the next twenty-nine years. He also served as dean of the Washington University School of Medicine from 1955 to 1958.[2] He was eventually succeeded as department head by Philip Needleman, but Lowry continued to work at Washington University for many years after becoming a Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Molecular Biology and Pharmacology.[1][3] Lowry was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1957 and to the National Academy of Sciences in 1964. He died of Alzheimer's disease, at the age of 85, on June 29, 1996.
Skills & Expertise
Research Expertise
Institution Building
physiological
microanalytical methods
Measurement of ketone bodies
Protein quantification
Folin-Ciocalteu reagent
Screening for vitamin deficiencies using micro methods
Quantitative histochemistry
Microbalance invention for precise measurement
Fluorescence-based metabolite
enzyme analysis
Electrolyte metabolism analysis
Research Interests
Biochemistry
Molecular Biology
Endocrinology
Pharmacology
Academic Administration
Academic Leadership
Alzheimer's Disease Research
Biochemistry Fundamentals
Physiological Chemistry
Experimental Biochemistry
Protein Chemistry
Internal medicine
Enzyme
MD-PhD Program
Public Health Research
Physiological chemistry
Electrolyte metabolism
Microanalytical methods
Vitamin deficiency screening
Collagen
elastin measurement
Freeze-drying tissue techniques
Microbalance invention
enzyme analysis
Metabolite
Fluorescence-based NADH
NADPH detection
Enzymatic cycling for amplification
Connect With Me
Experience
Professor Emeritus of Molecular Biology and Pharmacology
Chair of the Department of Pharmacology
Dean
Education
The University of Chicago (UChicago)
Northwestern University (McCormick)
Awards & Achievements (5)
🏆 Borden Award
Description
🏆 John Scott Award
Description
🏆 Merit Award
Description
🏆 Midwest Award
Description
🏆 Award
Description
Thesis Guided (1)
Oliver Howe Lowry
Institution: University of Chicago Booth School of Business
Publications (80)
Seven endurance-trained subjects were studied 12, 21, 56, and 84 days after cessation of training. Heart rate, ventilation, respiratory exchange ratio, and blood lactate concentration during submaxima...
Individual muscle fibers from the rat anterior tibialis and soleus muscles were each analyzed in duplicate for lactate dehydrogenase (LDH, EC 1.1.1.27), malate dehydrogenase (MDH, EC 1.1.1.37), 3-hydr...
Human beta-glucuronidase (beta-D-glucuronide glucuronosohydrolase, EC 3.2.1.31), like many other glycoprotein lysosomal hydrolases, is subject to receptor-mediated endocytosis by fibroblasts. Prior wo...
Methods were devised or modified which made it possible to measure phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase, fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase, and glucose-6-phosphatase in seven defined parts of single nephrons a...
Procedures are described for measuring sucrose in plant extracts or freeze-dried tissue in the range between 10−7 and 10−14 moles. The method is based on the destruction of pre-existing glucose and fr...
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