Clinical applications of isoenzymes.

I am very grateful for the honor conferred upon me by your kind invitation to give the first Sobotka Memorial Lecture. I accept with pleasure because it gives me an opportunity to pay my personal tribute to the memory of a most distinguished biochemist who undoubtedly was one of the founders of modern clinical chemistry. I first met Dr. Sobotka at the First International Congress of Clinical Chemistry in Amsterdam in 1954 and subsequently had the pleasure of renewing our acquaintance in Edinburgh, Detroit, and other places. Harry Sobotka’s name will certainly be linked with Van Slyke, Bodansky, King, and other giants of our profession. His scientific achievements, his part in establishing our Association, and the excellence of the series, Advances in Clinical Chemistry, which he edited in collaboration with C. P. Stewart, are examples to all of us. Dr. Sobotka’s many contributions to the application of chemistry in the study of disease processes have been excellently reviewed in the obituary notice in CLINICAL CHEMisray, and there is no need for me to discuss them here. Rather, as a humble follower in his footsteps, I would like in this lecture to discuss some of the clinical applications that have followed the recognition of enzyme heterogeneity.