Lehninger, Albert L(ester) (1917-1986)

US biochemist. An authority on cellular energy systems, he made a major contribution to enzymology, the bioenergetics of normal and cancer cells, and the results of calcification. He was the author of many textbooks on biochemistry, including the well-known Biochemistry: The Molecular Biology of Cell Structure, which sold over 600,000 copies. Lehninger was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut. He taught at the Universities of Wisconsin (1942-45) and Chicago (1945-52), before moving to Johns Hopkins University (1952-86). In 1948 Lehninger and E P Kennedy discovered that cellular organelles called mitochondria are the main sites of cell respiration.