Dam, Carl Peter Henrik (1895–1976)

Danish biochemist who was awarded a Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1943 for his discovery of vitamin K. He shared the prize with US biochemist Edward Doisy, who received the award for determining the chemical nature of vitamin K.

In 1928 Dam began a series of experiments to see if chickens could live on a cholesterol-free diet. The birds, it turned out, were able to metabolize their own supply. Yet they continued to die from spontaneous haemorrhages. Dam concluded that their diet lacked an unknown essential ingredient to control coagulation, which he eventually found in abundance in green leaves. Dam named the new compound vitamin K.

Dam was born in Copenhagen, studied there, and spent most of his career at the university and polytechnic institute there.