Biochemist James B. Sumner's natural perseverance was strengthened by his efforts to overcome a handicap suffered in an accident as a youth. He set out to isolate an enzyme in 1917--a task believed to be impossible at the time. By 1926, he had crystallized an enzyme and proven it was a protein, but spent many years defending the veracity of discovery. Sumner's achievement was finally recognized in 1946, when he shared the Nobel Prize in chemistry for proving that enzymes can be crystallized.

James Batcheller Sumner was born just south of Boston in Canton, Massachusetts, on November 19, 1887, the son of Charles and Elizabeth Kelly Sumner. They were an old New England family, whose ancestors had arrived in 1636 from Bicester, England, and Sumner's relatives included industrialists as well as artists. His own family was wealthy, and his father owned a large country estate. As a boy Sumner was interested in firearms...