Ephraim Katchalski-Katzir (1916–2009)
Michael Eisenbach*
Department of Biological Chemistry, The Weizmann Institute of Science, 76100 Rehovot, Israel
On 30 May 2009, the scientific community lost one of
Obituary
Figure 1. Ephraim Katchalski-Katzir in his office at the Weizmann Institute of
Science, Rehovot, Israel. Used with the permission and courtesy of the Weizmann
Institute of Science.
its prominent scientists, Ephraim Katchalski-Katzir
(Figure 1). He was a distinguished professor at the
Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel and
was scientifically active, bright and sharp until his very
last day.
Ephraim Katchalski-Katzir is scientifically best known
for his studies on synthetic polypeptides and immobilised
enzymes. He prepared the first synthetic polypeptide, poly-
L-lysine and showed that it can be lysed by trypsin [1]. This
opened the way for the synthesis of more complex polymers
of amino acids, including multichain and branched macro-
molecules. He also showed that these macromolecules
could serve as excellent models for studying physicochem-
ical and biological properties of native proteins [2,3].
Another major achievement of Katchalski-Katzir was in
immobilising enzymes. He developed methods for binding
enzymes, which speed up numerous chemical processes, to
a variety of surfaces and molecules [4,5]. The method laid
the foundations for what is now called enzyme engineering,
which plays an important part in the food and pharma-
ceutical industries [6]. Much of his more recent work
focused on various aspects of molecular-surface recognition
[7–9]. He authored hundreds of scientific papers, and
served on the editorial and advisory boards of numerous
scientific journals.
Ephraim Katchalski-Katzir was born in Kiev, the
Ukraine, in 1916. His parents brought him to British-
ruled Palestine in 1922. After leaving high school in
Jerusalem, he enrolled in the Hebrew University of
Jerusalem where he studied botany, zoology and bacteri-
ology before finally concentrating on biochemistry and
organic chem