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Supplement

Mechanistic Aspects of Vitamin and Coenzyme Utilization and Function: A Symposium in Recognition of the Distinguished Career of Donald B. McCormick¹

Alfred H. Merrill, Jr.², Barbara B. Bowman^* and Peter C. Preusch

Department of Biochemistry, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA 30322; ^* U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA 30341-3717; and National Institutes of General Medical Sciences, Bethesda, MD 20892-6200

²To whom correspondence should be addressed.

	INTRODUCTION

TOP INTRODUCTION

 
This symposium recognized the distinguished career of Professor Donald B. McCormick by highlighting various mechanistic aspects of water- and fat-soluble vitamin absorption, transport, metabolism and biological function. It was presented at the Experimental Biology 99 meeting in Washington, DC on April 19, 1999 with the above-named guest editors acting as co-chairs.

Dr. Merrill summarized Dr. McCormick’s career as follows: "Donald B. McCormick is a Professor of Biochemistry at Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta. He received his Bachelor’s degree in chemistry and Ph.D. in biochemistry (with Oscar Touster) from Vanderbilt University, followed by postdoctoral research at the University of California, Berkeley with Esmond E. Snell. Don was the L. H. Bailey Professor of Nutritional Biochemistry at Cornell University before becoming the F. E. Callaway Professor and Chairman of Biochemistry at Emory University. Dr. McCormick’s research has focused on cofactors including vitamins, coenzymes and metal ions. He has elucidated major aspects of the metabolism of riboflavin, vitamin B-6, biotin and lipoate as regards both conversion to functional coenzymes and catabolism. Among the enzymes he and his associates were first to purify and characterize are pyridoxal (PL) kinase, pyridoxine (PN) (pyridoxamine) phosphate oxidase, flavokinase, FAD synthetase and riboflavin 5'-hydroxymethyl oxidase. Dr. McCormick is widely acknowledged as the world’s expert on vitamins and minerals, and the honors and awards that he has received include Bausch and Lomb and Westinghouse Science Scholarships, USPHS and Guggenheim Fellowships, Mead Johnson and Osborne and Mendel Awards from the American Society for Nutritional Sciences (ASNS), the Bristol-Myers Squibb/Mead Johnson Award for Distinguished Achievement in Nutrition Research, Wellcome Visiting Professorships and other lectureships. He has approximately 500 publications and has been an editor for Vitamins and Coenzymes, Vitamins and Hormones, and Annual Review of Nutrition. Dr. McCormick has been a member of numerous scientific societies and committees and served in functions for government, including chairman of the NIH Nutrition study section, President of the ASNS, board member for FASEB, and Vice Chairman of the Food and Nutrition Board."

Dr. Merrill closed the introduction with the comment: "I call your attention to the subtitle that Don has chosen for his talk: "An odyssey with friends." What could be a more fitting summary of Don’s career? To those who have worked with him, whether only briefly on a committee or for several years as a student, postdoctoral fellow or other colleague, one’s dominant remembrances are of his encyclopedic knowledge, penetrating questioning, and—even more importantly—his excitement about intellectual inquiry and the fellowship of other scientists in the pursuit of knowledge."

Professor McCormick’s overview, "A trail of research on cofactors: an odyssey with friends," was followed by presentations by former graduate students and postdoctoral fellows (in the order of the reports that follow): Dr. Shiao-Chun Tu, University of Houston (Probing the mechanisms of biological intermolecular transfer of reduced flavin); Dr. Haruhito Tsuge, Gifu University [Effects of vitamin B-6 on (n-3) polyunsaturated fatty acid metabolism]; Dr. Janos Zempleni, Arkansas Children’s Hospital Research Institute (Utilization of biotin in proliferating human lymphocytes); Dr. Chung S. Yang, Rutgers University College of Pharmacy (Vitamin nutrition and gastroesophageal cancer); and, Dr. Earl Harrison, USDA-ARS (Lipases and carboxylesterases: possible roles in the hepatic utilization of vitamin A). Also presenting (but not included in these proceedings) were: Dr. Robert MacKenzie, McGill University (Structure-function of mammalian methylenetetrahydrofolate dehydrogenase-cyclohydrolases), and Drs. Bowman and Preusch who provided further information about Dr. McCormick’s career. Regrettably, Dr. Felicia Y.-H. Wu, Academia Sinica (Taipei, Taiwan), was unable to present her talk on "Antitumor activity and mechanism of action of vitamin K-3 in human tumor cells" due to circumstances beyond her control.

Instead of full manuscripts from all speakers, participants in the symposium agreed to allocate much of their space in The Journal of Nutrition supplement for a longer review by Dr. McCormick. Don has been such a life-long friend to so many that we are pleased to have this opportunity to acknowledge his professional and personal contributions.

	FOOTNOTES

 
¹ Presented at the symposium entitled "Mechanistic Aspects of Vitamin and Coenzyme Utilization and Function: A Symposium in Recognition of the Distinguished Career of Donald B. McCormick" as part of the Experimental Biology 99 meeting held April 17–21 in Washington, DC. This symposium was sponsored by the American Society for Nutritional Sciences. The proceedings of this symposium are published as a supplement to The Journal of Nutrition. Guest editors for this supplement publication were Alfred H. Merrill, Jr., Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, Barbara Bowman, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, and Peter C, Preusch, National Institutes of General Medical Sciences, Bethesda, MD.

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