History
MMPs were described initially by Jerome Gross and Charles Lapiere (1962), who observed enzymatic activity (collagen triple helix degradation) during tadpole tail metamorphosis (by placing a tadpole tail in a collagen matrix plate). Therefore, the enzyme was named interstitial collagenase (MMP-1).
Later, it was purified from human skin (1968), and was recognized to be synthesized as a zymogen.
The "cysteine switch" was described in 1990.
Read more about this topic: Matrix Metalloproteinase
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“These anyway might think it was important
That human history should not be shortened.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“In history an additional result is commonly produced by human actions beyond that which they aim at and obtain—that which they immediately recognize and desire. They gratify their own interest; but something further is thereby accomplished, latent in the actions in question, though not present to their consciousness, and not included in their design.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)
“A people without history
Is not redeemed from time, for history is a pattern
Of timeless moments.”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)