Nobel Prize Laureate Scientist. He was honored in 2001 for the development of enanthioselective synthesis, a practical way to manufacture the amino acid Parkinson's Disease drug L-dopa. The child of an upper middle class family, he was educated at the upscale Berkshire School and at Phillips Academy prior to entering Harvard from whence he graduated in 1939. After earning his Ph.D. at Columbia in 1942, he went to work for the Monsanto Company, initially in Ohio, but from 1944 until his 1986 retirement based in St. Louis. From 1968 thru 1972, Dr. Knowles worked on ways to make L-dopa without simultaneously creating equal quantities of its toxic and difficult-to-separate stereoisomer D-dopa. Utilizing chiral phosphate ligands as a catalyst, he was able to effect asymmetric hydrogenation and thus make close to pure batches of the desired compound. Though certainly not without potentially serious side effects, L-dopa continues to be marketed under a variety of trade names including Sinemet, and remains a mainstay of Parkinson's treatment. Early experimental use of L-dopa to treat severe motor rigidity was described in Dr. Oliver Sachs' book "Awakenings" (1973), and was depicted in both its good and bad aspects in Robin Williams' 1990 movie of that name. Remaining in the St. Louis suburbs, Dr. Knowles was long-retired when he received the 2001 Nobel Prize which he shared with Ryoji Noyori and Barry Sharpless. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2004, remained an avid outdoorsman into advanced age.
Nobel Prize Laureate Scientist. He was honored in 2001 for the development of enanthioselective synthesis, a practical way to manufacture the amino acid Parkinson's Disease drug L-dopa. The child of an upper middle class family, he was educated at the upscale Berkshire School and at Phillips Academy prior to entering Harvard from whence he graduated in 1939. After earning his Ph.D. at Columbia in 1942, he went to work for the Monsanto Company, initially in Ohio, but from 1944 until his 1986 retirement based in St. Louis. From 1968 thru 1972, Dr. Knowles worked on ways to make L-dopa without simultaneously creating equal quantities of its toxic and difficult-to-separate stereoisomer D-dopa. Utilizing chiral phosphate ligands as a catalyst, he was able to effect asymmetric hydrogenation and thus make close to pure batches of the desired compound. Though certainly not without potentially serious side effects, L-dopa continues to be marketed under a variety of trade names including Sinemet, and remains a mainstay of Parkinson's treatment. Early experimental use of L-dopa to treat severe motor rigidity was described in Dr. Oliver Sachs' book "Awakenings" (1973), and was depicted in both its good and bad aspects in Robin Williams' 1990 movie of that name. Remaining in the St. Louis suburbs, Dr. Knowles was long-retired when he received the 2001 Nobel Prize which he shared with Ryoji Noyori and Barry Sharpless. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2004, remained an avid outdoorsman into advanced age.
Bio by: Bob Hufford
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