- KORNBERG, ARTHUR
- KORNBERG, ARTHUR (1918– ), U.S. biochemist and Nobel laureate. Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., Kornberg received his B.Sc. at City College, New York, in 1937 and his M.D. at the University of Rochester in 1937. After medical posts including an appointment with the U.S. Coast Guard, he started his scientific career in the Nutrition Section of the National Institutes of Health at Bethesda, followed by appointments at New York University with Prof. Severo Ochoa, Washington School of Medicine with Prof. Carl and Gerty Cori, and the University of California with Prof. H.A. Barker before becoming chief of the Enzyme and Metabolism Section at NIH. In 1953–59 he was head of the Department of Microbiology at Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, Missouri, and subsequently head of the Department of Biochemistry at Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, California. He had a major career interest in enzymes, substances which increase the rate of biochemical reactions, and nucleic acid control of heredity. Crick and Watson's work strongly indicated that DNA contains the genetic blueprint which is copied in newly formed, complementary DNA sequences through the process of base pairing. Kornberg and his colleagues verified this concept experimentally and discovered the first of the enzymes, polymerase I, which controls the process of DNA copying. These enzymes play a crucial role in modern biotechnology. For this work he received the Nobel Prize for medicine in 1959 with Severo Ochoa. Later he investigated the role of inorganic polyphosphates and their contribution to the evolution of life forms. His many honors include membership in the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and fellowship in the Royal Society. He had a profound interest in training scientists and in the application of science to medicine. (Michael Denman (2nd ed.)
Encyclopedia Judaica. 1971.