On Dec. 30, 1963, Dr. Hans Neurath and colleagues at the University of Washington (UW) reported the chemical structure of trypsin to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. It was the first description of the structure of an enzyme that breaks apart proteins.

Neurath joined the UW in 1950 where he founded the Department of Biochemistry, and served as its chair from 1950 to 1975. Neurath’s department at the UW produced three winners of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.