Petar Alaupovic

Abstract

Petar Alaupovic, an internationally renowned biochemist and lipidologist, died on January 30, 2014, in Oklahoma City at the age of 91 years. Dr Alaupovic was a founder of the modern field of lipoproteins whose ideas continue to have an impact on its development. He performed research and taught at Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation since 1960. In 1964, Dr Alaupovic, known to his colleagues as Dr A or Pierre, proposed a revolutionary new classification system for lipoproteins. Until that time, the classification of lipoproteins focused on the physical properties of lipoproteins, emphasizing the lipid component and the size of the lipoprotein particle. However, Dr Alaupovic considered the protein part to have great biological importance that directed every step in the metabolism of lipoproteins and determined their effects on atherosclerosis. When he began his research on lipoproteins, there were considered to be just 2 apolipoproteins, apolipoprotein B and apolipoprotein A. Using immunologic and protein chemistry techniques, he isolated and characterized several additional apolipoproteins associated with lipoproteins. He proposed the ABC nomenclature for apolipoproteins, which initially included apolipoproteins A-I, A-II, B, C-I, C-II, C-III, D, and E. Most important to the subsequent progress in the field of lipoprotein, he subdivided the major lipoprotein classes, apolipoprotein A-I …