Curiosity
Where does the word “protein” come from?
The name was suggested in 1838 and comes from Greek: something like “of first importance”. It could not be more fitting.
In 1838, Dutch chemist Gerardus Mulder was studying substances found in eggs, blood and plants. It was the Swede Jöns Jacob Berzelius who suggested to him, by letter, the name “protein”, from the Greek proteios — “primary”, “of first importance”.
Today we know the choice was spot on: proteins carry oxygen, speed up chemical reactions, build structures, pass messages between cells and let neurons communicate.
The full set of proteins in a cell or tissue is the proteome — and the science that studies it is proteomics, the LNP's specialty.
