Protein Work Earns Nobel Award For Medical School's Fritz Lipmann

A Medical School professor seems certain to share in this year's Nobel Prizes for his discovery of a basic principle in the understanding of proteins.

Dr. Fritz Lipmann, who last year was made a professor of biochemistry, has been nominated for a prize by Stockholm's Caroline Medical Academy, selection body for the Nobel Foundation. He will share the prize with Dr. Hans A. Krebs, of Britain's Sheffield University, who also has done significant work in protein chemistry.

Lipmann's most celebrated discovery in metabolism studies is his identification of coenzyme-A, a protein unit which may prove to be a key toward the understanding of protein structure. Most of his research has been carried out at the Massachusetts General Hospital.

Holder of a Ph.D. in chemistry as well as an M.D., Lipmann came to this country in 1939 from Germany when he was forced to flee Hitler's anti-Semitic purges. After coming to America, he taught at Cornell for a short time, and was awarded an honorary degree in medicine by the University of Chicago.

Final confirmation of his status in the Nobel nominations will come tomorrow. It is unlikely the Academy will alter its choice although it is theoretically possible. Lipmann and Krebs are the only designated laureates. This year's award is worth 170,000 crowns ($31,600), and will be split between the two men.