Subdivision
| • | 201. Molecular Biology and Biochemistry | [X] |
| | 1 | Name: | Dr. Sidney Altman | | | Institution: | Yale University | | | Year Elected: | 1990 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 201. Molecular Biology and Biochemistry | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1939 | | | Death Date: | April 5, 2022 | | | | | | |
Born in Montreal in 1939, Sidney Altman was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1989 for making one of the most original and important discoveries in molecular biology. After discovering the t-RNA precursor molecules, he systematically explored their enzymatic conversion to a functional state. This led him to the realization that the catalysis is carried out by the RNA portion of the enzyme nucleoprotein. The importance of this contribution cannot be overstated; it has caused a reevaluation of the previous view that all enzymes are proteins and has provided the explanation of a number of previously observed phenomena. Dr. Altman joined the faculty at Yale University as an assistant professor in 1971, subsequently becoming a professor in 1980 and chairman of the department in 1983. Dr. Altman also served as Dean of Yale College from 1985-89, helping to bridge the gap between the humanities and the sciences. A man of wide cultural interests and an admired teacher, Dr. Altman is currently Sterling Professor of Biology and Chemistry at Yale. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. | |
| 2 | Name: | Dr. Maxine F. Singer | | | Institution: | Carnegie Institution of Washington & National Institutes of Health | | | Year Elected: | 1990 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 201. Molecular Biology and Biochemistry | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1931 | | | | | | |
Maxine Frank Singer has made major contributions to the biochemistry of nucleic acids and more recently to our knowledge of the mammalian genome structure and organization. She has also served with distinction as chair of the editorial board of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and as president of the Carnegie Institution, and she is widely recognized as an articulate author and spokesperson for science. After receiving her Ph.D. in biochemistry from Yale University in 1957, Dr. Singer joined the research staff of the National Institutes of Health. She would later serve as chief of the Laboratory of Biochemistry at the National Cancer Institute from 1980-87, where she led fifteen research groups engaged in various biochemical investigations. Dr. Singer's research contributions have ranged over several areas of biochemistry and molecular biology, including chromatin structure, the structure and evolution of defective viruses, and enzymes that work on DNA and its complementary molecule, RNA. In recent years, her foremost contributions have been in studies of a large family of repeated DNA sequences called LINES - sequences interspersed many times in mammalian DNA. She and her co-workers have been especially interested in the LINE-1 sequence, which is repeated thousands of times in human DNA. LINE-1, she early concluded, is capable of insertion into new places on chromosomal DNA, and researchers elsewhere later found that LINE-1 insertions into a gene whose product is required for blood clotting are associated with cases of hemophilia. Believing that the mechanism of LINE-1 transposition might have broad significance for understanding genetic diseases, Dr. Singer and her colleagues have concentrated their experiments on learning how LINE-1 elements move. Throughout her career, Dr. Singer has assumed leading roles in influencing and refining the nation's science policy. In 1988 she became President of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, where she led the biologists, astronomers and earth scientists who make up the Institution's six scientific departments. Dr. Singer is presently President Emerita of the Carnegie Institution while also retaining her association with the National Cancer Institute as Scientist Emerita. Her several awards for public service include the Distinguished Presidential Rank Award (1988) and the National Medal of Science (1992), the nation's highest scientific honor bestowed by the President of the United States, "for her outstanding scientific accomplishments and her deep concern for the societal responsibility of the scientist." Most recently, she was honored with the 2007 Public Welfare Medal, the National Academy of Sciences' most prestigious award recognizing extraordinary use of science for the public good. | |
| 3 | Name: | Dr. Paul Talalay | | | Institution: | Johns Hopkins University | | | Year Elected: | 1990 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 201. Molecular Biology and Biochemistry | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1923 | | | Death Date: | March 10, 2019 | | | | | | |
Paul Talalay, M.D. was John Jacob Abel Distinguished Service Professor of Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He held an S.B. degree in biophysics from M.I.T. and an M.D. degree from Yale. Following surgical training at Massachusetts General Hospital, he moved to the University of Chicago, rising to the academic ranks of Professor of Biochemistry, Professor of Medicine, and Professor in the Ben May Laboratory for Cancer Research. After serving for 12 years as Director of the Department of Pharmacology at Johns Hopkins Medical School, he relinquished this position to devote himself full time to research. Dr. Talalay devoted his career to cancer research. For more than 2 decades he was involved in devising strategies for chemoprotection against the risk of cancer, a field in which he is recognized as a pioneer. His efforts focused on achieving protection by raising the enzymes concerned with the detoxication of carcinogens. Analysis of the chemistry and the molecular biology of boosting enzymes of detoxication led him and his colleagues to devise simple cell culture methods for detecting chemical and especially dietary (Phyto)chemicals that raise these enzymes. This work led to the isolation of sulforaphane as the most potent inducer of protective enzymes in broccoli. These findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, attracted world-wide attention, and led to the organization of the Brassica Chemoprotection Laboratory at Johns Hopkins. This unique laboratory is exclusively dedicated to identifying edible plants that are particularly rich in protective enzyme-inducer activity. Dr. Talalay's honors, in addition to his appointment as a University Distinguished Service Professor, included appointment to one of the first lifetime professorships of the American Cancer Society and membership in the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. He published more than two hundred papers in internationally respected scientific journals. He received an honorary D.Sc. degree from Acadia University. The M.D.-Ph.D. Student Library at Johns Hopkins has been named in his honor. He was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1990. Paul Talalay died March 10, 2019 in Baltimore, MD at the age of 95. | |
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