On Oct. 12, 1992, Edmond Fisher and Edwin Krebs of University of Washington’s (UW) School of Medicine received the Nobel Prize for Medicine for their discovery of reversible protein phosphorylation, a chemical reaction that controls cellular action.

Dr. Fischer came to the UW, Seattle in the early 1950s to teach biochemistry. He became interested in enzymes during his early work in Switzerland, trying to discover the molecular structure of starch and glycogen.

Dr. Krebs taught at the UW in Seattle, after World War II, and began his investigations into how muscles work. He later became a department chair at the University of California, Davis and the UW.