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Robert K. Crane

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Robert K. Crane
Robert K. Crane circa 1960.
Born (1919-12-20) 20 December 1919 (age 104)
Palmyra, New Jersey, United States
NationalityU.S.
Alma materHarvard University
Known forCotransport
AwardsAmerican Gastroenterological Association Distinguished Achievement Award (1969)
Scientific career
FieldsBiochemistry
InstitutionsWashington University in St. Louis
Chicago Medical School
Rutgers Medical School

Robert Kellogg Crane (born December 20, 1919) is an American biochemist best known for his discovery of sodium-glucose cotransport.

Biography

Robert Kellogg Crane was born on December 20, 1919 in Palmyra, New Jersey, to Wilbur Fiske Crane, architect and engineer, and Mary Elisabeth Crane. He is the grandson of Stephen Crane's brother Wilbur.[1]

After serving in the Navy during World War II, Crane studied in biochemistry with Eric Ball at Harvard from 1946 to 1949, then spent a year with Fritz Lipmann at Harvard Medical School, and received a Ph.D. in Medical Sciences in 1950. He then joined Carl Cori’s Department of Biological Chemistry at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, where he began his long interest in glucose metabolism and worked until 1962. After that, he was professor and chairman of the department of Biochemistry at the Chicago Medical School and then held the same positions at Rutgers Medical School until 1986. [2]

He received the American Gastroenterological Association’s Distinguished Achievement Award in 1969.[3]

Application in oral rehydration therapy

Crane’s discovery of cotransport led directly to the development of oral rehydration therapy.[4][5] This treatment counter-balances the loss of water and electrolytes caused by cholera via a glucose containing salt solution that accelerates water and electrolyte absorption. This is possible because cholera does not interfere with sodium-glucose cotransport.[6][7]

Oral rehydration therapy saves the lives of millions of cholera patients in underdeveloped countries since the 1980’s.[8] It is one of the most important medical advances of the 20th century.[9][10]

Selected Bibliography

  • Robert K. Crane and T. Hastings Wilson. “In vitro method for the study of the rate of intestinal absorption of sugars”. Journal of Applied Physiology, volume 12, 1958, pp. 145-146.
  • Robert K. Crane. “Intestinal absorption of sugars”. Physiological Reviews, volume 40, 1960, pp. 789–825.
  • Robert K. Crane, D. Miller and I. Bihler. “The restrictions on possible mechanisms of intestinal transport of sugars”. In: Membrane Transport and Metabolism. Proceedings of a Symposium held in Prague, August 22–27, 1960. Edited by A. Kleinzeller and A. Kotyk. Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, 1961, pp. 439-449.
  • D. Miller and Robert K. Crane. “The digestive function of epithelium of the small intestine. 1. An intracellular locus of disaccharide and sugar phosphate ester hydrolysis”. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta 52, 1961, pp. 281-293.
  • Robert K. Crane. “Hypothesis for mechanism of intestinal active transport of sugars” Federation Proc. 21, 1962, pp. 891-895.
  • Alexander Eichholz, K.E. Howell and Robert K. Crane. “Studies on the organization of the brush border in intestinal epithelial cells VI. Glucose binding to isolated intestinal brush borders and their subfractions”. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta 193, 1969, pp. 179-192.
  • Robert K. Crane. “Structural and functional organization of an epithelial cell brush border”. Intracellular Transport, Symp. Intnl. Soc. Cell BioI. Volume 5, B. Warren, Ed., Academic Press, 1966, pp. 71-102.
  • Alexander Eichholz and Robert K. Crane. “Isolation of plasma membranes from intestinal brush borders in Methods in Enzymology”. Volume 31, part A, Biomembranes, S. Fleischer and L. Packer, Eds., Academic Press, 1974, pp. 123-134.
  • Robert K. Crane. “The gradient hypothesis and other models of carrier-mediated active transport” Reviews of Physiology, Biochemistry and Pharmacology, volume 78, 1977, pp. 99-159.
  • Robert K. Crane. “Digestion and absorption: water-soluble organics”. International review of physiology, Gastrointestinal physiology II, volume 12, Robert K. Crane, Ed., University Park Press, 1977, pp. 325-365.
  • Robert K. Crane. “The road to ion-coupled membrane processes.” In: Comprehensive Biochemistry. Vol 35: Selected Topics in the History of Biochemistry, Personal Recollections l. (Neuberger, A., van Deenen, L. L. M. and Semenga, G., Eds.), Elsevier, Amsterdam, 1983, pp. 43-69.

Further reading

See also

References

  1. ^ Robert K. Crane. "Stephen Crane's Family Heritage". Stephen Crane Studies 4.1, 1995.
  2. ^ Robert K. Crane. “The road to ion-coupled membrane processes.” In: Comprehensive Biochemistry. Vol 35: Selected Topics in the History of Biochemistry, Personal Recollections l. (Neuberger, A., van Deenen, L. L. M. and Semenga, G., Eds.), Elsevier, Amsterdam, 1983, pp. 43-69. Model of cotransport on page 64.
  3. ^ Distinguished Achievement Award. American Gastroenterological Association, 2008, p. 2.
  4. ^ C. A. Pasternak. “A Glance Back Over 30 Years”. Bioscience Reports, volume 13, No. 4, 1993, p. 187. Crane: “I have recently been reassured that this formulation of sodium ion-coupled glucose transport in the intestine was the basis for the development by others of the simple glucose-sodium chloride solution taken by mouth that is used world-wide to treat victims of life-threatening diarrhea as in cholera. A practical development based on my little piece of basic research has saved thousands upon thousands of lives.”
  5. ^ J.D. Snyder. “Can Bismuth Improve the Simple Solution for Diarrhea?”. New England Journal of Medicine, volume 328, issue 23, 1993, p. 1705. “The discovery in the mid-1960s of the coupled transport of sodium and glucose across the intestinal mucosa led directly to the development of oral rehydration therapy”.
  6. ^ Arthur C Guyton and John E Hall. “Textbook of Medical Physiology”. Elsevier Saunders, Philadelphia, 2006, pp. 814-816.
  7. ^ Canadian Paediatric Society, Nutrition Committee. “Oral rehydration therapy and early refeeding in the management of childhood gastroenteritis”. Paediatrics & Child Health, volume 11, issue 8, 2006, pp. 527-531.
  8. ^ W.B. Greenough. Lancet 345, June 1995, p. 1568. “The life saving power of oral rehydration therapy was first demonstrated in cholera patients. By 1971 there was sufficient knowledge to reduce death from 40% to less than 3%, even under chaotic field conditions ----- ‘Now used for all diarrheal diseases it’ saves the lives of over one million children a year and if fully used could save 3-4 million lives every year.”
  9. ^ Editorial. “Water with sugar and salt”. Lancet 2, August 5, 1978, pp. 300–301. “The discovery that sodium transport and glucose transport are coupled in the small intestine, so that glucose accelerates absorption of solute and water, was potentially the most important medical advance this century.”
  10. ^ Michael Seear. “An Introduction to International Health”. Canadian Scholars' Press, 2007, p. 175. “In terms of numbers of children saved, the discovery of oral rehydration solution is one of greatest medical advances of all time.”
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