The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1907 was awarded to Eduard Buchner "for his biochemical researches and his discovery of cell-free fermentation".
 

For a long time chemists have been paying great attention to the phenomena which we now call fermentation. Under this name we include a number of chemical processes which occur in living beings and for which they are of the greatest importance. In very recent times, particularly, the advancement of our knowledge has made it probable that there are processes which are fermentative to a particularly high degree, which bring about the conversion of substances in living beings and which thus control this condition of life. Meanwhile, we know these ferments up to now only by the effects they produce. A number of fermentations have been readily observable. This relates, for example, to the ferments which occur in dissolved state in the secretions which are discharged into the digestive system and exert such a great influence there. The unforgettable service done by Pasteur is that he showed that there are living organisms which are the originators of putrefaction and fermentation and of a number of processes which are of very great significance. Pasteur's view was thus considered to be confirmed, namely that the chemical process in alcoholic fermentation was a life expression by the yeast cells, and was thus inextricably linked with their life. Under these circumstances it can easily be understood that a great sensation was created when E. Buchner, after many years' work, succeeded in showing that alcoholic fermentation could be produced from the juices expressed from yeast cells, free from live cells. He demonstrated incontrovertibly that this fermentation was due to a ferment produced by the yeast cells, from which it can be separated. Fermentation is not a direct expression of life by yeast cells; the cells can be killed and destroyed, while the ferment remains.