Gilbert (Gilbert), Walter

genus. March 21, 1932
American molecular biologist Walter Gilbert was born in g. Boston (Mass.), the family of Richard Gilbert, an economist Keynesian persuasion, which from 1924 to 1939. taught at Harvard University, and Emma Gilbert (nee Cohen), a child psychologist, who gave his two children at home primary education. When he was seven years old, he and his family moved to r. Washington (DC). During the Second World War, his father worked in the Office of the price control. Studying in the public schools of Washington and later in secondary school 'Sidvelovskih friends', T. already expressed an interest in scientific activities. After completing secondary school in 1949. He entered Harvard University, specializing mainly in the field of physics.
In 1953, Mr.. he he graduated with honors and in the same year he married the poetess Tselii Stone. They have two children. G. remained at Harvard University to carry out the thesis in physics and in 1954. received a master's degree. Then he moved to England at Cambridge University and worked there as a doctoral research under the leadership of Abdus Salam over the output of mathematical formulas for predicting dispersion of elementary particles.
Cambridge G. met James D. Watson and Francis Crick, the sequences involved in research they discovered in 1953. the structure of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) - a cellular carrier of genetic information for protein synthesis. Proteins, not only by the regenerative cells, but also hormones and enzymes involved in this process, composed of amino acids. In accordance with the model of Watson - Crick DNA helix is made up of chains of building blocks, called nucleotides, each of which carries one of four bases - adenine (A), thymine (T), cytosine (C) and guanine (G). Ancestral carrier, or the genetic code of each amino acid, encoded by three bases and is an instruction to connect the amino acids in the formation of a certain protein.
After receiving his doctorate in mathematics in 1957. Cambridge G. returned to Harvard, where a year spent post-doctoral research, and then another year as a scientific assistant in physics, Julius C. Schwinger. In 1959, Mr.. He was appointed assistant professor at the Physics Department at Harvard University.
By 1960, Mr.. James Watson went to work at Harvard and resumed friendly relations with Mr.. While Watson was interested in the processes that linked the specific nucleotide sequence of DNA synthesis of proteins encoded by this sequence. Protein synthesis is known to occur in the ribosomes - the cellular structures that are open in 1949. Albert Claude. Scientists have speculated that genetic information is transferred from DNA to ribosomes with unstable nucleic acid called messenger RNA (altered mRNA). In response to a request by Watson to help him identify altered mRNA G. gladly took up the experimental work, and his life began a long period of research in the field of molecular biology.
In 1964, Mr.. G. gone with the Physics Department and became an associate professor of biophysical faculty, where he and his colleague, Benno Muller-Hill, interested in the question raised by Francois Jacob and Jacques Monod. During the three years before Jacob and Monod have, . in the genetics issue is not whether, . How do genes, . but in, . how this action is prevented, . ie, . other words, . why all the DNA sequences do not always produce proteins encoded,
. The sequence of bases in DNA is copied (or transcribed) in altered mRNA using an enzyme called RNA polymerase, as it moves along the helical DNA molecule. Jacob and Monod suggested that the process of transcription can be prevented in the case repressornaya molecule binds to DNA and prevents RNA polymerase to move DNA.
Using the bacterium Escherichia coli, r. and Muller-Hill began to investigate this problem. E. coli synthesize a number of proteins that break down milk sugar - lactose. Synthesis of proteins is initiated by the so-called lac-operons in the presence of lactose, in its absence repressorny protein inhibits the Lac-operon. By 1966, Mr.. Both researchers have already identified a repressor, and over the next four years, Mr.. determined the structure and localization of the operator, his position on the DNA helix, to which the repressor associates.
. At the moment, it is clear that the nucleotide sequence of the operator of the DNA plays a key role in the process, in which the repressor recognizes the operator and associates himself with
. Using methods developed by Frederick Sanger at Cambridge University, Mr.. and Allan Maxim in 1973. determined the sequence of lac-operator. Two years later, at the suggestion of faculty visited the Soviet scientist Andrei Mirzabekova G. began the study of specific nucleotide lac-operator, the most important in the process of binding. Mirzabekov and his colleagues studied the interaction of DNA with antibiotics in the presence of dimethyl sulphate, a substance which reduces the strength of the interaction of A-and G-nucleotides. Since methylated DNA is easily broken down in certain places, helix of DNA was split into fragments of variable, but fixed length.
Applying the method of his scientific research to study the lac-operon, D. and Maxim isolated DNA fragments corresponding length using electrophoresis in a gel. Using this method, the fragments under the influence of a weak electric current moving in a thin layer gel with different and characteristic for each speed, . and, . as radiolabeled, . Samples leaving dark bands on photographic paper,
. This method was so effective that Mr.. and Maxim were able to separate the fragments, the length of which differed by only one base.
By 1977, Mr.. G. and his colleagues identified the complete nucleotide sequence of the investigated protein. Another method of determining the sequence in the meantime has been developed by Frederick Sanger, and both methods quickly become fundamental in the emerging field of recombinant DNA, ie. Genetic Engineering. Using its experience, Mr.. in 1978. involved in the case the company was founded 'Nutrients', one of the first companies specializing in the field of genetic engineering. In 1982, a year later, after he was elected chairman of 'Nutrients', T. leaves Harvard University, which after leaving the company back in late 1984. At Harvard, he continued his research on the structure of the gene and synthesis of proteins in recombinant organisms.
Half of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1980. was awarded to Mr.. and Sanger 'for his contribution to the definition of the base sequence in nucleic acids'. The other half of the prize was awarded to Paul Berg for a similar study. The work of these three scholars' have already brought benefits to mankind, - said in his speech at the presentation of a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Po G. Maelstrom - not only in the form of new fundamental knowledge, but also in the form of such an important technical solutions, as the production of human hormones with the help of bacteria. "
In addition to the Nobel Prize, Mr.. was awarded the Steel Foundation for Molecular Biology, U.S. National Academy of Sciences (1968), premium VD. Mattia Institute of Molecular Biology. Grove (1976), . Prize Louis and Bertha Fridmenov New York Academy of Sciences (1977), . Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize from Columbia University (1979), . annual premium Gayrdnerskogo Fund (1979), . Albert Lasker Award for Experimental Medicine (1979), . Memorial Award, Herbert A,
. Collect the American Society of Biochemistry (1980). He was awarded the honorary title of Chicago, Columbia and the University of Rochester. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American National Academy of Sciences, the American Society of Biochemistry and the American Physical Society.