Gilbert Ashwell
G. Gilbert Ashwell (* 1916 in Jersey City, New Jersey) is an American biochemist.
Life
Ashwell acquired in 1938 from the University of Illinois and a bachelor in 1941 a master. In 1948, he earned an MD at Columbia University as graduation from medical school. Here he remained, first as a research assistant before he went in 1950 to the National Institute of Arthritis, Metabolism, and Digestive Diseases, a facility of the National Institutes of Health ( NIH). As the National Institute of Arthritis, Metabolism, and Digestive Diseases was divided into the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, Ashwell remained at last -called Institute - until his retirement.
Work
Ashwell pioneered the study of the function of certain cell receptors, which control the endocytosis of glycoproteins by specific binding to certain glycoproteins.
So Ashwell discovered together with Anatol G. Morell one of the first carbohydrate receptors as membrane lectins able to eliminate outdated glycoproteins from the blood stream. For this purpose, they used radioactively labeled and chemically modified ceruloplasmin. Further studies showed that removal of the terminal sialic acid residue and a galactose residue of the exposure to glycoproteins whose elimination in the liver leads respectively.
With Toshisuke Kawasaki isolated Ashwell a liver of birds occurring protein that binds specifically N-acetyl glucosamine. They described the similarities and differences from the mammalian homologue occurring.