Jakub Karol Parnas : A story of a revolutionary scientist

The development of biochemistry has influenced other disciplines of life sciences greatly, and the understanding of enzymes and metabolic pathways was no less than a revolution in the field of science. One of 20th Century’s remarkable discovery in biochemistry was the complete understanding of Glycolysis Pathway, where our body breaks down glucose into pyruvate/lactate to form energy. Glycolysis, commonly referred to as EMP pathway, is named after the scientists Embden, Meyerhof, and Parnas, who played a pivotal role in its discovery. In the 1920-30s Embden and Meyerhof, studied the fragments of literature that was discovered by other scientists until then, and tried to add those fragments of knowledge to completely understand that metabolic pathway. Finally, it was done by

Meyerhof and a group of researchers lead by Jakub Karol Parnas, a polish biochemist.

Jakub Parnas was born on 16th January 1884 in tarnopol which was then a part of Austria – Hungary. Just 1 year before the first world war, Parnas joined the University of Cambridge where he got hardly any significant time for research and due to WW-I he had to come back to Poland. He joined as a lecturer of physiological chemistry at Warsaw University in 1916. Five years later, in 1921 he moved to Livv to join as the departmental head of medical chemistry at the University of Livv. The historical Jan Kazimierz University, currently the Livv University, saw the best of this prominent biochemist. Parnas

with his skilled coworkers started researching chiefly on metabolic pathways like Glycogenesis, Glycolysis etc. Besides these, they also have an interest in muscle metabolism and ammonia formation and also conducted research to explore those areas. Soon, the results started to come.

Alongside the findings of Karl Lohmann about the ATP production as a bi-product and its ability to accomplish a biochemical reaction without producing heat, Parnas identified that creatine phosphate gets stored for energy to phosphorylate ATP. The head of the department of medical chemistry, Jakub Parnas made another profound contribution to our comprehension of Glycolysis by discovering the enzyme pyruvate kinase. He also proposed phosphate cycle where regeneration of ATPs in other steps of Glycolysis counterbalances the one ATP used for phosphorylation. This was,

perhaps, the end of his peak period and from here, the slow marching towards a widely recognized tragedy of this great Biochemist started.

September 1939 witnessed the invasion of Poland by Russia. However, the Soviet authority permitted the Livv University to continue its work, making Parnas able to do more research. At this time, he agreed to collaborate with Soviet authority and played a political role in representing workers’ delegation that has association with communist party. But soon, the Nazi invaded Russia and he had to cut off all his work and fled deeper into Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). Even though for a short time, the almighty bestowed luck on him, just after his departure the Nazi occupied the Livv University and killed approximately 45 professors. Another dramatic event took

place in this time. Parnas met one of the greatest Russian revolutionary and politician, Joseph Stalin who was the leader of Soviet union then. He proposed Stalin for help to make him do research to synthesize a coffein from bird’s excrement as substratum. He also expressed that this invention can be used in army. This meet up between two heavyweights in their respective fields made an impact. Stalin decided to grant Parnas his own laboratory. But alas! the end was near. In spite of being

popular and all the achievements Jakub Parnas was arrested by KGB which was the main security agency of Soviet union at that time. This noble scientist who had contributed to human welfare immensely was falsely accused of being a spy and arrested by KGB on 28th of January, 1949. That was it, the revolutionary biochemist Jakub Karol Parnas never saw the sunlight again as a freeman. The next day, on January 29th he was interrogated in Lubyanka prison, during which he had a heart attack

and passed away. That’s how an unforgettable journey of accolades, appreciation, success as well as surprises and tragedy ended. Parnas was indeed one of the greatest Biochemists of all-time, he was one of the men who solved the Puzzle of Glycolysis and in return, he got false accusations. History repeats itself, almost 350 years ago the great Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei was falsely found guilty as he stated that the Earth isn’t at centre and it moves. He was interrogated, physically tortured and finally

punished. Although there’s no evidence of it, there’s a renowned legend that in his final abjuration Galileo whispered, “and yet moves.” And very much like this it is true that Parnas was a great scientist and a Well-wisher of mankind even if he was accused and arrested. Parnas died of a heart attack just after the day of his arrest during his first interrogation as per the KGB archives. But what truly this revolutionary biochemist, Jakub Karol Parnas went through on his last few days no one knows; and here lies the greatest tragedy.