Kornberg (Kornberg), Arthur

genus. March 3, 1918
American biochemist Arthur Kornberg was born in Brooklyn (District of New York). His parents were Joseph and Lena Kornberg Arthur Kornberg (Katz). Primary education Arthur received in a public school in New York. With great ability, to. 15 years graduated from high school, Abraham Lincoln. After school, he received a scholarship to study at City College in New York, received an initial medical course and took biology and chemistry. In 1937, Mr.. K. received a bachelor's degree with honors and enrolled in medical school at the University of Rochester. Here he became interested in medical science and biochemistry of enzymes - proteins, act as a catalyst, ie. accelerating cellular biochemical reactions. While studying at the university to. ill with infectious hepatitis, and after recovery he wrote his first scientific article 'The case of jaundice in the healthy in other respects a medical student' ( 'The Occurrence of Jaundice in an Otherwise Normal Medical Student').
In 1941, Mr.. K. received a medical degree and enrolled in a one-year internship in a hospital at the University of Rochester Strong. When the Second World War, to. was intended to serve as a Coast Guard lieutenant. At the end of 1942. through medical education, he was appointed an officer of the health services of the United States and assigned to the department of Physiology, National Institute of Health in Bethesda (Maryland).
At the end of the war to. he became an assistant in the laboratory of Severo Ochoa in the medical school at New York University. In 1947, Mr.. He worked as a visiting researcher in the laboratory of Charles V. and Gerty T. Cory in the medical school at Washington University in St. Louis (Missouri). In the same year he was appointed head of the Department of Enzymology and Metabolism at the National Institute of Health, and three years later was a visiting researcher at the University of California at Berkeley.
During these years to. become a recognized authority in the field of biochemistry of enzymes. He also studied the formation of coenzymes in cages - thermostable water-soluble components of enzymes. The participation of coenzymes in enzymatic reactions is reduced to the transfer of small chemical groups from one molecule to another. K. discovered that two coenzyme - diphosphopyridine nucleotides (DFN) and FAD (FAD) - formed as a result of condensation reaction, while the molecule, which is formed from the coenzyme, inorganic phosphate cleaved. He speculated that the synthesis dezoksiribonu-kleinovoy acid (DNA) may also include a similar stage of condensation.
Mode of formation of DNA in cells at the time was one of the central problems of biology and genetics. In 40-ies. found that the genes formed part of the DNA molecules. Since it is the genes control the biosynthesis of cellular proteins, ie. enzymes they regulate and biochemical processes in cells. The most important discovery in this area was made in 1953, when Francis Crick and James D. Watson, who worked at Cambridge University, established the chemical structure of DNA. They found that the DNA molecule is rolled into a double helix like a spiral staircase. Outside of this spiral are two layers of deoxyribose (pyatiatomnogo carbohydrate) joined by phosphate bridges. These two layers inside the spiral together in pairs of nitrogenous bases ( 'stairs'), connected to each other by hydrogen bonds. Using three-dimensional model created by Watson and Crick, scientists could finally explore the biosynthesis of DNA. It turned out that both halves of the DNA molecule first separated from each other like fasteners "lightning". Then next to each such half is synthesized its mirror image. The sequence of nitrogenous bases, or nucleotides (one of the components, which are cleaved DNA under the action of nucleases), serves as a template for synthesis of new molecules.
In 1953, Mr.. K. was appointed professor of microbiology and chair of microbiology at the medical school at Washington University in St. Louis. Through this research, he identified and purified the enzyme responsible for the synthesis of DNA in the bacteria Escherichia coli. He named the enzyme DNA polymerase. With the help of DNA polymerase to. and his colleagues in 1957. able to synthesize DNA, but its exact replication prevented contamination of the mixture in vitro. Since the nucleotide sequence was broken when it obtained DNA was biologically inactive, ie. could not serve as a template for synthesis of other DNA molecules. Meanwhile, Severo Ochoa synthesized molecule of ribonucleic acid (RNA) - a nucleic acid similar to DNA. One of the functions of RNA is transfer of genetic information from DNA to the site of protein synthesis.
In 1959, Mr.. K. and Ochoa was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for the discovery of mechanisms of biological synthesis of ribonucleic and deoxyribonucleic acids'. At the award ceremony, held in Stockholm, Ochoa named to. 'his best student'. K. in his Nobel lecture, . called 'biological synthesis of deoxyribonucleic acid' ( 'The Biologic Synthesis of Deoxyribonucleic Acid'), . compared the DNA from the 'tape, . which recorded the exact instructions for performing a particular job 'and that' you can take exact copies ..,
. so that this information can be used again in any place and at any time '.
Awarding the Nobel Prize has coincided with the appointment to. the post of professor of biochemistry and head of the department of biochemistry at Stanford University in Palo Alto (Calif.). Here he continued his studies in the field of DNA. He and his colleague Meran Goulian, and Robert Sinshmeyer, who worked at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, studying one of the viruses that infect bacteria E. coli. In 1967, using the virus Sinshmeyera as a matrix, K. Goulian and first received in vitro biologically active DNA. At a special conference called to warn about this discovery, K. said that prior to the laboratory are two tasks for the study of DNA: 'to study the fine chemical structure ... DNA polymerase 'and' understanding of how regulated the synthesis of DNA in the cell '.
Isolation and purification of polymerase and DNA replication have been outstanding achievements in biochemistry. They became the basis for the development of methods and directions of replication of genetic material of cells. At a crucial stage in the described K. DNA synthesis operates catalyst - an enzyme polymerase, ie. protein that catalyzes the synthesis of DNA sequences in accordance with the instructions contained in the matrix. These instructions are based on the fact that the nucleotides of DNA through hydrogen bonds are connected to each other - adenine with thymine and guanine with cytosine. By Portfolio. opened new directions not only in the biochemistry and genetics, but also in the treatment of hereditary diseases and cancer.
In 1943, Mr.. K. married Sylvie, Ruth Levy, conduct research in the field of biochemistry. In the family they have three sons.
To. - Author of 'Enzymatic synthesis of DNA' ( 'Enzymatic Synthesis of DNA) (1961),' Biosynthesis of DNA '(' Biosynthesis of DNA ') (1964) and' DNA synthesis' ( 'DNA Synthesis') (1974). He was awarded the laboratories of Paul Lewis on the chemistry of enzymes of the American Chemical Society (1951), . prize for scientific achievement of the American Medical Association (1968), . Lucy James Worth Prize of the Society for Medical Oncology (1968), . Borden Award for Medical Research Association of American Medical Colleges (1968) and the National Medal for scientific achievements of the London Royal Society (1979),
. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Society of biologists, as well as a foreign member of the London Royal Scientific Society.