Du Vigneaud, Vincent (1901-1978)

US biochemist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1955 for his investigations into biochemically important sulphur compounds and the first synthesis of a polypeptide hormone, oxytocin. Du Vigneaud also isolated vitamin H (biotin) and determined its structure.

He studied the hormones secreted by the posterior pituitary gland, especially oxytocin and vasopressin. He discovered that oxytocin was made up of eight amino acids, arranged in a particular order. In 1953 he synthesized oxytocin. This was the first protein to be synthesized. In 1956, Du Vigneaud and his team synthesized vasopressin.

Du Vigneaud was born in Chicago and educated at the University of Illinois, Urbana, and the University of Rochester, New York, gaining his doctorate in 1927 for work on the hormone insulin. In 1932, he became professor and head of the biochemistry department at the School of Medicine at George Washington University, Washington, DC. From 1938-67, he held a similar position at Cornell University Medical College in Ithaca, New York. He was professor of chemistry at Cornell University 1967-75.