{{Short description|American biochemist (1899–1958)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=July 2022}} {{Infobox person/Wikidata | fetchwikidata=ALL|dateformat=mdy}}
'''Arda Alden Green''' (May 7, 1899 – January 22, 1958) was born in Prospect, Pennsylvania, and was an American biochemist who co-discovered the neurotransmitter serotonin and discovered the reaction responsible for firefly bioluminescence.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Colowick |first=Sidney P. |date=1958-09-05 |title=Arda Alden Green, Protein Chemist |url=https://www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1126/science.128.3323.519 |journal=Science |volume=128 |issue=3323 |pages=519–521 |doi=10.1126/science.128.3323.519|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref name=":0" /> She is also known for contributing to Gerty Cori and Carl Cori's elucidation of the Cori cycle and showing how pH affects hemoglobin's ability to bind and transport oxygen. She received the Garvan-Olin Medal from the American Chemical Society for her work.<ref name=":1">{{cite journal |last1=Colowick |first1=Sidney P. |title=Arda Alden Green, Protein Chemist |journal=Science |year=1958 |volume=128 |issue=3323 |pages=519–521 |doi=10.1126/science.128.3323.519 |jstor=1755814 |pmid=17770783 |bibcode=1958Sci...128..519C |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1755814 |issn=0036-8075|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>Whitaker-Azmitia, P. (1999). The discovery of serotonin and its role in neuroscience. ''Neuropsychopharmacology'', ''21'' (Suppl 1), 2-8 https://doi.org/10.1016/S0893-133X(99)00031-7</ref>
==Early life and education== Arda Green was born in Prospect, Pennsylvania, daughter of Vennis A. Green and Melva Stevenson Green. Her father taught chemistry, and her sister Metta Clare Green (Loomis) earned a PhD in physics. The Green family moved to California when Arda was a girl.<ref>[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/2901818/vennis_a_green_1929/ "Do You Know Your Neighbors?" ''Modesto News-Herald'' (April 27, 1929): 13.] via Newspapers.com {{open access}}.</ref><ref>[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/2901862/metta_clare_green_married_albert/ "Dr. Metta Clare Green Weds Dr. Albert Loomis in her Parents' Home," ''Modesto News-Herald'' (August 7, 1932): 4.] via Newspapers.com {{open access}}.</ref> Arda Green earned undergraduate degrees in chemistry and philosophy at the University of California at Berkeley in 1921; she continued into graduate study of philosophy, but soon shifted her focus to medicine. She earned a medical degree at Johns Hopkins University in 1927.<ref name=":0">[https://books.google.com/books?id=uPRB-OED1bcC&dq=Arda%20Green&pg=PA289 Elizabeth H. Oakes, ''Encyclopedia of World Scientists'' (Infobase Publishing 2007): 289–291.] {{ISBN|9781438118826}}</ref>
She started medical studies at Berkeley, but took a year off to study under protein biochemist Edwin J. Cohn at Harvard University at the encouragement of Herbert M. Evans.<ref name=":1" /> She then completed her medical studies at Johns Hopkins University, where she worked on electrolyte conductivity in membranes with Leonor Michaelis<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y7PWRklCK7oC&q=arda+green+biochemist&pg=PT6|title=Crucible of Science: The Story of the Cori Laboratory|last=Exton|first=John H.|date=March 15, 2013|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780199339877|language=en}}</ref> and graduated in 1927.<ref name=":0" />
==Career== After graduate study, Green worked as a National Research Council fellow in medicine at Harvard University, working in the laboratory of Edwin Cohn and specializing in developing methods for isolating and purifying proteins.<ref name=":1" /> In the period from 1930 until 1932, Green conducted research at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution<ref>{{Cite journal|date=1930–1932|title=Annual Report, 1930–1932|url=https://darchive.mblwhoilibrary.org/handle/1912/10127|journal=WHOI Annual Reports|language=en|pages=44}}</ref> where she worked with Alfred C. Redfield on respiration in porpoises<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=GREEN|first1=ARDA A.|last2=REDFIELD|first2=ALFRED C.|title=On the Respiratory Function of the Blood of the Porpoise |year=1933|url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdf/10.2307/1537498|journal=The Biological Bulletin|volume=64|issue=1|pages=44–52|doi=10.2307/1537498|jstor=1537498 |issn=0006-3185}}</ref> and a project on hemoglobin in certain fish.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=GREEN|first1=ARDA ALDEN|last2=ROOT|first2=RAYMOND W.|title=The Equilibrium between Hemoglobin and Oxygen in the Blood of Certain Fishes |year=1933|url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdf/10.2307/1537205|journal=The Biological Bulletin|volume=64|issue=3|pages=383–404|doi=10.2307/1537205|jstor=1537205 |s2cid=87826293 |issn=0006-3185|url-access=subscription}}</ref> She collaborated with Ronald M. Ferry on studies into hemoglobin's pH dependence and would later continue characterizing hemoglobin's solubility and interactions with carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide.<ref name=":1" /> During her time at Harvard, she also worked as a research fellow in the lab of Lawrence J. Henderson, spent seven years as a research associate in pediatrics, and tutored biochemical sciences at Radcliffe College.<ref name=":1" />
In 1941, she moved to the Washington University School of Medicine, where she worked with Gerty Cori and Carl Cori as an assistant professor of biochemistry.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=Y7PWRklCK7oC&dq=Arda%20Green&pg=PA41 John H. Exton, ''Crucible of Science: The Story of the Cori Laboratory'' (Oxford University Press 2013): 41–43.] {{ISBN|9780199339877}}</ref> Green isolated pure phosphorylase, a key enzyme in the Cori cycle pathway that breaks down the sugar storage molecule glycogen, playing a critical role in the elucidation of glycogen metabolism.<ref name=":0" /> At Washington University she also purified other important metabolic enzymes including aldolase, which breaks down fructose.<ref name=":0" />
In 1945, she was appointed to the faculty at the Cleveland Clinic, working with Irvine Page. It was at Cleveland that she co-discovered and named serotonin, an important organic compound, with Page and Maurice M. Rapport.<ref>{{cite journal| pmc=3547519 | pmid=23336042 | doi=10.1021/cn4000082 | volume=4 | issue=1 | title=Serotonin and the Australian connection: the science and the people | journal=ACS Chem Neurosci | pages=28–32 | last1 = Mylecharane | first1 = EJ| year=2013 }}</ref> She also isolated and studied, in collaboration with F. M. Bumpus, molecules important in blood pressure regulation including angiotensinogen (the precursor to angiotensin) and angiotonin (hypertension).<ref name=":1" />
Green's career concluded at Johns Hopkins University; she began studying the chemistry of bioluminescence with William D. McElroy at the McCollum-Pratt Institute there in 1953.<ref>[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/2901797/bioluminescence_studies_at_jhu_1958/ "It's Open Season on Fireflies in Baltimore," ''The Daily Times'' (June 23, 1958): 1.] via Newspapers.com {{open access}}</ref> She isolated firefly luciferase, discovered the reaction that makes fireflies glow, and began work on bacterial bioluminescence, but was unable to complete it due to illness.<ref name=":0" /> <!-- She also served as a consultant for Sinai Hospital{{dn|date=October 2020}}'s pediatric department.<ref name=":1" /> --> <!-- which one? see Talk-->
Green received the Garvan-Olin Medal, the top award for achievements in chemistry,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Colowick |first=Sidney P. |date=1958-09-05 |title=Arda Alden Green, Protein Chemist |url=https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.128.3323.519 |journal=Science |volume=128 |issue=3323 |pages=519–521 |doi=10.1126/science.128.3323.519|url-access=subscription }}</ref> from the American Chemical Society in autumn 1957<ref>[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/2901903/arda_green_obituary_1958/ "Noted Chemist Dies of Cancer," ''Morning Herald'' (January 23, 1958): 16.] via Newspapers.com {{open access}}</ref> and it was formally awarded posthumously in April 1958.<ref name=":1" />
==Personal life== Green died in January 1958, from breast cancer, at the age of 58.<ref name=":0" />
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Further reading== *{{cite book |author=Benjamin F Shearer |author2=Barbara Smith Shearer |title=Notable women in the physical sciences : a biographical dictionary |year=1997 |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780313293030 |url-access=registration |publisher=Westport, Conn. : Greenwood Press, 1997. |isbn=9780313293030 |oclc=433367323 }}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Green, Arda}} Category:1899 births Category:1958 deaths Category:20th-century American biochemists Category:20th-century American women biochemists Category:Chemists from Pennsylvania Category:Cleveland Clinic people Category:Johns Hopkins School of Medicine alumni Category:Harvard Fellows Category:University of California, Berkeley alumni Category:Washington University School of Medicine faculty Category:Recipients of the Garvan–Olin Medal