Manuel Francisco Morales | |
|---|---|
| Born | July 23, 1919 San Pedro, Sula, Honduras |
| Died | November 12, 2009 (aged 90) |
| Nationality | Honduran |
| Citizenship | USA |
| Alma mater | UC Berkeley A.B., Harvard University Ph.D |
| Known for | energetics of ATP hydrolysis, myosin structure by FRET |
| Awards | National Academy of Sciences, Order of the Rising Sun |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Biophysics, Cell biology |
| Institutions | University of Chicago, Naval Medical Research Institute, Dartmouth Medical School, UCSF, University of the Pacific |
Manuel Francisco Morales (July 23, 1919 – November 12, 2009) was a Honduran-born American biophysicist who did pivotal research on the molecular basis of muscle contraction.
In the 1950s at the Naval Medical Research Institute, Morales and Terrell Hill showed that the high energy of the terminal phosphate bond in ATP was due to electrostatic repulsion between the three phosphate groups,[1][2] and he and Richard Podolsky measured the heat of hydrolysis for ATP cleavage, the fundamental energy currency of biological metabolism.[1][3]
Morales was elected a member of the US National Academy of Sciences and awarded the Order of the Rising Sun (Japan). He served as president of the Biophysical Society for 1968–69,[4] and was the founding editor of the Annual Review of Biophysics.[1]