Michel, Hartmut (1948– )

German biochemist who shared the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1988 with Robert Huber and Johann Deisenhofer for his role in determining the molecular structure of photosynthetic reaction centres. Michel crystallized the protein from a reaction centre membrane of the bacterium Rhodopseudomonas viridis, allowing Huber to analyse the protein using the technique of X-ray crystallography to establish the protein's overall structure.

Photosynthesis occurs within reaction centres embedded in membrane vesicles. Michel was convinced that membrane-bound proteins in reaction centres held the key to photosynthesis. Michel crystallized the protein, which was only partially water soluble, by using a molecule that was hydrophilic (water-loving) at one end and hydrophobic (water-hating) at the other. The hydrophobic ends of the protein membranes could be bound up, while the hydrophilic ends were free to bind with water molecules, so the protein became soluble.

Born in Ludwigsburg, western Germany, he was educated at the University of Warburg and the University of Munich. He worked at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry and was appointed director of the Max Planck Institute of Biophysics in 1987. In 1990, he published his findings in Crystallization of Membrane Proteins.