Karl Paul Link
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'''Karl Paul Gerhard Link''' ([[31 January]] [[1901]] - [[21 November]] [[1978]]) was an [[United States|American]] [[biochemistry|biochemist]] best known for his discovery of the [[anticoagulant]] [[warfarin]].
==Training and early career==
He was born in [[LaPorte, Indiana]] to a [[Lutheranism|Lutheran]] [[Religious ministry|minister]] of [[Germany|German]] descent as one of ten children. He was schooled locally, and attended the [[University of Wisconsin-Madison]], where he studied agricultural chemistry at the College of Agriculture from 1918 to 1925, obtaining an MS in 1923 and a PhD in 1925. He was then chosen by the national Education Board for a postdoctoral scholarship, and relocated to [[Europe]]. He briefly worked with carbohydrate chemist [[James Irvine (chemist)|Sir James Irvine]] at the [[University of St Andrews]] in Scotland and from 1926 with [[Fritz Pregl]], inventor of microchemistry and Nobel Laureate. Finally he spent several months with organic chemist and future Nobel laureate [[Paul Karrer]] in the latter's lab in [[Zurich]]; during this period Link suffered from [[tuberculosis]], requiring recuperation in [[Davos]]. Around this time he may have acquired his taste for dressing eccentrically.
He was offered an assistant professorship at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1927, and was promoted to associate professor in 1928. He worked initially on plant carbohydrates and resistance to disease. He married Elizabeth Feldman in 1930; they were to have three sons.
==Anticoagulants==
In the subsequent years, most of his research focused on plant carbohydrates. However, the most fruitful period began when Ed Carson, a Wisconsin farmer, attracted Link's attention to [[sweet clover disease]], described in 1924 by veterinarian Frank Schofield. In this condition, cows bled to death after consuming hay made from spoilt [[sweet clover]]. Carson's stock had been affected, and he brought a dead cow, blood that would not [[coagulation|clot]], and 100 pounds of sweet clover hay. Under the direction of Link, PhD students Harold Campbell, Ralph Overman, Charles Huebner, and Mark Stahmann crystallised the putative poison - a coumarin - and synthetised and tested it; it turned out to be dicumarol (3,3'-methylenebis-(4 hydroxycoumarin)).
Dicumarol was subjected to clinical trials in [[Wisconsin General Hospital]] and the [[Mayo Clinic]]. It was for several years the most popular oral anticoagulant.
[[Warfarin]], one of the several compounds synthesised as part of the coumarin research, was patented in 1945 with the [[Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation]], Link and researchers Stahlmann and Ikawa jointly owning the patent. Initially marketed as [[rat poison]], warfarin would later, in the 1950s, become the second most important anticoagulant for clinical use (after [[heparin]]).
==Later years==
Link was elected to the [[United States National Academy of Sciences|National Academy of Sciences]] in 1946. He received several awards for his work, including the 1955 [[Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research]] and the 1960 [[Albert Lasker Award for Clinical Medical Research]]. He remained closely involved in the biochemistry of warfarin and related compounds.
His work in later years was hampered by poor health (tuberculosis). Nevertheless he remained a full professor until 1971, when he retired. He was a lifelong pioneer of [[liberalism|liberal]] causes, and his wife was active in the pacifist movement.
Link died from [[heart failure]] in 1978.
==Bibliography==
* Link KP, Tottingham WE. Effects of the method of desiccation on the carbohydrates of plant tissue. ''J Am Chem Soc'' 1923;45:439-47.
* Campbell HA, Link KP. Studies on the hemorrhagic sweet clover disease. IV. The isolation and crystallization of the hemorrhagic agent. ''J Biol Chem'' 1941;138:21-33.
* Stahmann MA, Huebner CF, Link KP. Studies on the hemorrhagic sweet clover disease. V. Identification and synthesis of the hemorrhagic agent. ''J Biol Chem'' 138:513-27.
* Link KP. The discovery of dicumarol and its sequels. ''Circulation'' 1959;19:97-107. PMID 13619027.
==Source==
* Burris RH. "Karl Paul Link". In: ''Biographical Memoirs: v. 64''. National Academy Press, 1994. ISBN 0-309-04978-4. [http://darwin.nap.edu/books/0309050375/html/177.html Fulltext].
{{DEFAULTSORT:Link, Karl Paul}}
[[Category:1901 births]]
[[Category:1978 deaths]]
[[Category:American biochemists]]
[[Category:American Lutherans]]
[[Category:People from La Porte, Indiana]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research]]