Arthur Kornberg

Kornberg, Arthur (Kornberg, Arthur) (p. 1918), American biochemist, awarded the 1959 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (jointly with S. Ochoa) for the discovery of the mechanism of the biosynthesis of nucleic acids. Born March 3, 1918 in New York. He graduated from City College in New York and the University of Rochester. In 1942 a medical officer for the U.S. Coast Guard. In 1942-1952 he worked at the National Institute of Health in Bethesda, in 1947 during the year - in the Medical School at New York University as a visiting researcher in the laboratory of Severo Ochoa. From 1953 to 1959 - Head of Microbiology University Dzh.Vashingtona in St. Louis (pc. Montana), 1959 - Professor, Department of Biochemistry, Stanford University, until 1969 - Dean.

The first work devoted Kornberg intermediate products of metabolism and enzymes involved in their education. These studies led to the discovery of chemical reactions responsible for the synthesis of FAD and difosfouridinnukleotida - nucleotides, involved in redox processes in the cell. Investigating the mechanism of synthesis of nucleotides - monomeric units of DNA and RNA - Kornberg approached the problem of their connection with each other (polymerization). Isolated and purified the enzyme now called DNA polymerase, which catalyzes the copying (replication) of DNA in dividing cells. Using a matrix of natural DNA, Kornberg was first realized the synthesis of functionally active DNA in vitro.