Arthur Kornberg
Encyclopedia
Arthur Kornberg was an American
biochemist
who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
1959 for his discovery of "the mechanisms in the biological synthesis of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)" together with Dr. Severo Ochoa
of New York University
. He was also awarded the Paul-Lewis Laboratories Award in Enzyme Chemistry from the American Chemical Society
in 1951, L.H.D. degree from Yeshiva University
in 1962, as well as National Medal of Science
in 1979.
His primary research interests were in biochemistry
, especially enzyme
chemistry, deoxyribonucleic acid synthesis (DNA replication
) and studying the nucleic acids which control heredity in animals, plants, bacteria and viruses.
, Arthur Kornberg was the son of Joseph and Lena Kornberg who emigrated to New York from Austrian Galicia (now part of Poland
) in 1900 before they were married. His paternal grandfather had changed the family name from Queller (also spelled Kweller) to avoid the draft by taking on the identity of someone who had already completed military service. Joseph Kornberg married Lena Katz in 1904. He worked as a sewing machine operator in the sweat shops of the Lower East side of New York
for almost 30 years, and when his health failed, opened a small hardware store in Brooklyn
, where Arthur assisted customers at the age of nine. Joseph spoke at least six languages although he had no formal education.
Arthur Kornberg was educated first at Abraham Lincoln High School and then at City College
in New York City
. He received at B. Sc. in 1937, followed by an M.D.
at the University of Rochester
in 1941. Kornberg had a mildly elevated level of bilirubin
in his blood— jaundice
due to a hereditary genetic condition known as Gilbert's syndrome
—and while at medical school he took a survey of fellow students to discover how common the condition was. The results were published in Kornberg's first research paper in 1942.
His internship was at Strong Memorial Hospital
in Rochester, New York
, between 1941-1942. After completing his medical training he joined the armed services as a Lieutenant in the United States Coast Guard
, serving as a ship's doctor in 1942. Rolla Dyer
, the Director of National Institutes of Health, had noticed his paper and invited him to join the research team at the Nutrition Laboratory of the NIH. From 1942 to 1945, Kornberg's work was the feeding of specialized diets to rats to discover new vitamins.
s. He transferred to Dr Severo Ochoa's
laboratory at New York University
in 1946, and took summer courses at Columbia University
to fill out the gaps in his knowledge of organic and physical chemistry while learning the techniques of enzyme purification at work. He became Chief of the Enzyme and Metabolism Section at NIH from 1947–1953, working on understanding of ATP
production from NAD
and NADP. This led to his work on how DNA is built up from simpler molecule
s.
In 1953 he became Professor and Head of the Department of Microbiology, Washington University in St. Louis
, until 1959. Here he continued experimenting with the enzymes which created DNA. In 1956 he isolated the first DNA polymerizing enzyme, now known as DNA polymerase I
. This won him the Nobel prize in 1959.
In 1960 he received a LL.D. again from City College, followed by a D.Sc. at the University of Rochester
in 1962. He became Professor and Executive Head of the Department of Biochemistry, Stanford University
, Stanford in 1959. "...in a 1997 interview with Sally Smith Hughes, Arthur Kornberg (referring to Josh Lederberg) stated: "Lederberg really wanted to join my department. I knew him; he's
a genius, but he'd be unable to focus and to operate within a small family group like ours, and so, I was instrumental in establishing a department of genetics [at Stanford] of which he would be chairman."
Kornberg's mother died of gas gangrene from a spore
infection after a routine gall bladder operation in 1939. This started his lifelong fascination with spores, and he devoted some of his research efforts to understanding them while at Washington University. From 1962 to 1970, in the midst of his work on DNA synthesis, Kornberg devoted half his research effort to determining how DNA is stored in the spore, what replication mechanisms are included, and how the spore generates a new cell
. This was an unfashionable but complex area of science, and although some progress was made, eventually Kornberg abandoned this research.
The Arthur Kornberg Medical Research Building at the University of Rochester Medical Center
was named in his honor in 1999.
Until his death Kornberg, still maintained an active research laboratory at Stanford, and regularly published peer reviewed scientific papers. For several years the focus of his research was the metabolism of inorganic polyphosphate
.
The "Kornberg school" of biochemistry refers to Arthur Kornberg's many graduate students and post-doctoral fellows, i.e., his intellectual children, and the trainees of his trainees, i.e., his intellectual grandchildren. Kornberg's intellectual children include I. Robert Lehman, Randy Schekman
, William T. Wickner
, James Rothman
and Ken-ichi Arai.
Arthur and Sylvy Kornberg had three sons: Roger David Kornberg
(1947), Thomas B. Kornberg
(1948), and Kenneth Andrew Kornberg (1950). Roger is Professor of Structural Biology at Stanford University
, and the 2006 laureate of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
. Thomas discovered DNA polymerase
II and III in 1970 and is now a professor at the University of California, San Francisco
. Kenneth is an architect specializing in the design of biomedical and biotechnology laboratories and buildings.
Arthur Kornberg was married three times. His first two wives predeceased him. Sylvy Kornberg died in 1986. Arthur Kornberg remarried in 1988 but his second wife, the former Charlene Walsh Levering, died in 1995. In December 1998 Arthur Kornberg married Carolyn Dixon. She survived him.
When he was in his eighties Arthur Kornberg continued to conduct research full time at Department of Biochemistry at Stanford. He died on October 26, 2007 at Stanford Hospital from respiratory failure.
Enzymatic Synthesis of DNA, John Wiley & Sons, 1961
DNA Synthesis, W. H. Freeman and Co., San Francisco, 1974 ISBN: 0-7167-0586-9
DNA Replication, W. H. Freeman and Co., San Francisco, 1980 ISBN 0-7167-1102-8
DNA Replication (2nd Edition) with Tania A. Baker., W. H. Freeman and Co., New York,
1992 ISBN 0-7167-2003-5
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
biochemist
Biochemist
Biochemists are scientists who are trained in biochemistry. Typical biochemists study chemical processes and chemical transformations in living organisms. The prefix of "bio" in "biochemist" can be understood as a fusion of "biological chemist."-Role:...
who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine administered by the Nobel Foundation, is awarded once a year for outstanding discoveries in the field of life science and medicine. It is one of five Nobel Prizes established in 1895 by Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, in his will...
1959 for his discovery of "the mechanisms in the biological synthesis of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)" together with Dr. Severo Ochoa
Severo Ochoa
Severo Ochoa de Albornoz was a Spanish-American doctor and biochemist, and joint winner of the 1959 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Arthur Kornberg.-Early life:...
of New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
. He was also awarded the Paul-Lewis Laboratories Award in Enzyme Chemistry from the American Chemical Society
American Chemical Society
The American Chemical Society is a scientific society based in the United States that supports scientific inquiry in the field of chemistry. Founded in 1876 at New York University, the ACS currently has more than 161,000 members at all degree-levels and in all fields of chemistry, chemical...
in 1951, L.H.D. degree from Yeshiva University
Yeshiva University
Yeshiva University is a private university in New York City, with six campuses in New York and one in Israel. Founded in 1886, it is a research university ranked as 45th in the US among national universities by U.S. News & World Report in 2012...
in 1962, as well as National Medal of Science
National Medal of Science
The National Medal of Science is an honor bestowed by the President of the United States to individuals in science and engineering who have made important contributions to the advancement of knowledge in the fields of behavioral and social sciences, biology, chemistry, engineering, mathematics and...
in 1979.
His primary research interests were in biochemistry
Biochemistry
Biochemistry, sometimes called biological chemistry, is the study of chemical processes in living organisms, including, but not limited to, living matter. Biochemistry governs all living organisms and living processes...
, especially enzyme
Enzyme
Enzymes are proteins that catalyze chemical reactions. In enzymatic reactions, the molecules at the beginning of the process, called substrates, are converted into different molecules, called products. Almost all chemical reactions in a biological cell need enzymes in order to occur at rates...
chemistry, deoxyribonucleic acid synthesis (DNA replication
DNA replication
DNA replication is a biological process that occurs in all living organisms and copies their DNA; it is the basis for biological inheritance. The process starts with one double-stranded DNA molecule and produces two identical copies of the molecule...
) and studying the nucleic acids which control heredity in animals, plants, bacteria and viruses.
Early life
Born in New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, Arthur Kornberg was the son of Joseph and Lena Kornberg who emigrated to New York from Austrian Galicia (now part of Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
) in 1900 before they were married. His paternal grandfather had changed the family name from Queller (also spelled Kweller) to avoid the draft by taking on the identity of someone who had already completed military service. Joseph Kornberg married Lena Katz in 1904. He worked as a sewing machine operator in the sweat shops of the Lower East side of New York
Lower East Side, Manhattan
The Lower East Side, LES, is a neighborhood in the southeastern part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is roughly bounded by Allen Street, East Houston Street, Essex Street, Canal Street, Eldridge Street, East Broadway, and Grand Street....
for almost 30 years, and when his health failed, opened a small hardware store in Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
, where Arthur assisted customers at the age of nine. Joseph spoke at least six languages although he had no formal education.
Arthur Kornberg was educated first at Abraham Lincoln High School and then at City College
City College of New York
The City College of the City University of New York is a senior college of the City University of New York , in New York City. It is also the oldest of the City University's twenty-three institutions of higher learning...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. He received at B. Sc. in 1937, followed by an M.D.
Doctor of Medicine
Doctor of Medicine is a doctoral degree for physicians. The degree is granted by medical schools...
at the University of Rochester
University of Rochester
The University of Rochester is a private, nonsectarian, research university in Rochester, New York, United States. The university grants undergraduate and graduate degrees, including doctoral and professional degrees. The university has six schools and various interdisciplinary programs.The...
in 1941. Kornberg had a mildly elevated level of bilirubin
Bilirubin
Bilirubin is the yellow breakdown product of normal heme catabolism. Heme is found in hemoglobin, a principal component of red blood cells. Bilirubin is excreted in bile and urine, and elevated levels may indicate certain diseases...
in his blood— jaundice
Jaundice
Jaundice is a yellowish pigmentation of the skin, the conjunctival membranes over the sclerae , and other mucous membranes caused by hyperbilirubinemia . This hyperbilirubinemia subsequently causes increased levels of bilirubin in the extracellular fluid...
due to a hereditary genetic condition known as Gilbert's syndrome
Gilbert's syndrome
Gilbert's syndrome , often shortened to GS, also called Gilbert-Meulengracht syndrome, is the most common hereditary cause of increased bilirubin and is found in up to 5% of the population...
—and while at medical school he took a survey of fellow students to discover how common the condition was. The results were published in Kornberg's first research paper in 1942.
His internship was at Strong Memorial Hospital
Strong Memorial Hospital
Strong Memorial Hospital is a 739-bed medical facility, part of the University of Rochester Medical Center complex , in Rochester, New York. Opened in 1926, is a major provider of both in-patient and out-patient medical services....
in Rochester, New York
Rochester, New York
Rochester is a city in Monroe County, New York, south of Lake Ontario in the United States. Known as The World's Image Centre, it was also once known as The Flour City, and more recently as The Flower City...
, between 1941-1942. After completing his medical training he joined the armed services as a Lieutenant in the United States Coast Guard
United States Coast Guard
The United States Coast Guard is a branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven U.S. uniformed services. The Coast Guard is a maritime, military, multi-mission service unique among the military branches for having a maritime law enforcement mission and a federal regulatory agency...
, serving as a ship's doctor in 1942. Rolla Dyer
Rolla Dyer
Rolla Eugene Dyer was born in Delaware County, Ohio. Dyer received his B.A. from Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, and his M.D. from the University of Texas. He joined the U.S. Public Health Service in 1916....
, the Director of National Institutes of Health, had noticed his paper and invited him to join the research team at the Nutrition Laboratory of the NIH. From 1942 to 1945, Kornberg's work was the feeding of specialized diets to rats to discover new vitamins.
Scientific research
The feeding of rats was boring work, and Kornberg became fascinated by enzymeEnzyme
Enzymes are proteins that catalyze chemical reactions. In enzymatic reactions, the molecules at the beginning of the process, called substrates, are converted into different molecules, called products. Almost all chemical reactions in a biological cell need enzymes in order to occur at rates...
s. He transferred to Dr Severo Ochoa's
Severo Ochoa
Severo Ochoa de Albornoz was a Spanish-American doctor and biochemist, and joint winner of the 1959 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Arthur Kornberg.-Early life:...
laboratory at New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
in 1946, and took summer courses at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
to fill out the gaps in his knowledge of organic and physical chemistry while learning the techniques of enzyme purification at work. He became Chief of the Enzyme and Metabolism Section at NIH from 1947–1953, working on understanding of ATP
Adenosine triphosphate
Adenosine-5'-triphosphate is a multifunctional nucleoside triphosphate used in cells as a coenzyme. It is often called the "molecular unit of currency" of intracellular energy transfer. ATP transports chemical energy within cells for metabolism...
production from NAD
Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide
Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, abbreviated NAD, is a coenzyme found in all living cells. The compound is a dinucleotide, since it consists of two nucleotides joined through their phosphate groups. One nucleotide contains an adenine base and the other nicotinamide.In metabolism, NAD is involved...
and NADP. This led to his work on how DNA is built up from simpler molecule
Molecule
A molecule is an electrically neutral group of at least two atoms held together by covalent chemical bonds. Molecules are distinguished from ions by their electrical charge...
s.
In 1953 he became Professor and Head of the Department of Microbiology, Washington University in St. Louis
Washington University in St. Louis
Washington University in St. Louis is a private research university located in suburban St. Louis, Missouri. Founded in 1853, and named for George Washington, the university has students and faculty from all fifty U.S. states and more than 110 nations...
, until 1959. Here he continued experimenting with the enzymes which created DNA. In 1956 he isolated the first DNA polymerizing enzyme, now known as DNA polymerase I
DNA polymerase I
DNA Polymerase I is an enzyme that participates in the process of DNA replication in prokaryotes. It is composed of 928 amino acids, and is an example of a processive enzyme - it can sequentially catalyze multiple polymerisations. Discovered by Arthur Kornberg in 1956, it was the first known...
. This won him the Nobel prize in 1959.
In 1960 he received a LL.D. again from City College, followed by a D.Sc. at the University of Rochester
University of Rochester
The University of Rochester is a private, nonsectarian, research university in Rochester, New York, United States. The university grants undergraduate and graduate degrees, including doctoral and professional degrees. The university has six schools and various interdisciplinary programs.The...
in 1962. He became Professor and Executive Head of the Department of Biochemistry, Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
, Stanford in 1959. "...in a 1997 interview with Sally Smith Hughes, Arthur Kornberg (referring to Josh Lederberg) stated: "Lederberg really wanted to join my department. I knew him; he's
a genius, but he'd be unable to focus and to operate within a small family group like ours, and so, I was instrumental in establishing a department of genetics [at Stanford] of which he would be chairman."
Kornberg's mother died of gas gangrene from a spore
Spore
In biology, a spore is a reproductive structure that is adapted for dispersal and surviving for extended periods of time in unfavorable conditions. Spores form part of the life cycles of many bacteria, plants, algae, fungi and some protozoa. According to scientist Dr...
infection after a routine gall bladder operation in 1939. This started his lifelong fascination with spores, and he devoted some of his research efforts to understanding them while at Washington University. From 1962 to 1970, in the midst of his work on DNA synthesis, Kornberg devoted half his research effort to determining how DNA is stored in the spore, what replication mechanisms are included, and how the spore generates a new cell
Cell (biology)
The cell is the basic structural and functional unit of all known living organisms. It is the smallest unit of life that is classified as a living thing, and is often called the building block of life. The Alberts text discusses how the "cellular building blocks" move to shape developing embryos....
. This was an unfashionable but complex area of science, and although some progress was made, eventually Kornberg abandoned this research.
The Arthur Kornberg Medical Research Building at the University of Rochester Medical Center
University of Rochester Medical Center
The University of Rochester Medical Center , located in Rochester, New York, is one of the main campuses of the University of Rochester and comprises the university's primary medical education, research and patient care facilities....
was named in his honor in 1999.
Until his death Kornberg, still maintained an active research laboratory at Stanford, and regularly published peer reviewed scientific papers. For several years the focus of his research was the metabolism of inorganic polyphosphate
Polyphosphate
Triphosphates are salts or esters of polymeric oxyanions formed from tetrahedral PO4 structural units linked together by sharing oxygen atoms. When two corners are shared the polyphosphate may have a linear chain structure or a cyclic ring structure. In biology the polyphosphate esters AMP, ADP...
.
The "Kornberg school" of biochemistry refers to Arthur Kornberg's many graduate students and post-doctoral fellows, i.e., his intellectual children, and the trainees of his trainees, i.e., his intellectual grandchildren. Kornberg's intellectual children include I. Robert Lehman, Randy Schekman
Randy Schekman
Randy W. Schekman is an American cell biologist at the University of California, Berkeley and Editor-in-Chief of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. In 2011 he was announced as the editor of a new high profile open access journal published by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the...
, William T. Wickner
William T. Wickner
William T. Wickner born March 13, 1946, the James C. Chilcott '20 Distinguished Professor of Biochemistry at Dartmouth Medical School, is an authority on membrane fusion and inheritance, which is a fundamental problem in eukaryotic and bacterial cell biology....
, James Rothman
James Rothman
James E. Rothman is the Fergus F. Wallace Professor of Biomedical Sciences at Yale University and at Yale University Medical School. He has received many honors, including the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize from Columbia University and the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research both in 2002...
and Ken-ichi Arai.
Family life
On November 21, 1943, Kornberg married Sylvy Ruth Levy, also a biochemist of note. She worked closely with Kornberg and contributed significantly to the discovery of DNA polymerase. The day after he was awarded the Nobel prize, she was quoted in a newspaper as saying "I was robbed".Arthur and Sylvy Kornberg had three sons: Roger David Kornberg
Roger D. Kornberg
Roger David Kornberg is an American biochemist and professor of structural biology at Stanford University School of Medicine.Kornberg was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2006 for his studies of the process by which genetic information from DNA is copied to RNA, "the molecular basis of...
(1947), Thomas B. Kornberg
Thomas B. Kornberg
Thomas Bill Kornberg is an American biochemist who was the first person to purify and characterise DNA polymerase II and DNA polymerase III. He is currently a Professor of biochemistry and biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco working on Drosophila melanogaster development.His...
(1948), and Kenneth Andrew Kornberg (1950). Roger is Professor of Structural Biology at Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
, and the 2006 laureate of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Nobel Prize in Chemistry
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to scientists in the various fields of chemistry. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895, awarded for outstanding contributions in chemistry, physics, literature,...
. Thomas discovered DNA polymerase
DNA polymerase
A DNA polymerase is an enzyme that helps catalyze in the polymerization of deoxyribonucleotides into a DNA strand. DNA polymerases are best known for their feedback role in DNA replication, in which the polymerase "reads" an intact DNA strand as a template and uses it to synthesize the new strand....
II and III in 1970 and is now a professor at the University of California, San Francisco
University of California, San Francisco
The University of California, San Francisco is one of the world's leading centers of health sciences research, patient care, and education. UCSF's medical, pharmacy, dentistry, nursing, and graduate schools are among the top health science professional schools in the world...
. Kenneth is an architect specializing in the design of biomedical and biotechnology laboratories and buildings.
Arthur Kornberg was married three times. His first two wives predeceased him. Sylvy Kornberg died in 1986. Arthur Kornberg remarried in 1988 but his second wife, the former Charlene Walsh Levering, died in 1995. In December 1998 Arthur Kornberg married Carolyn Dixon. She survived him.
When he was in his eighties Arthur Kornberg continued to conduct research full time at Department of Biochemistry at Stanford. He died on October 26, 2007 at Stanford Hospital from respiratory failure.
Books
- For the Love of Enzymes: The Odyssey of a Biochemist. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1989, ISBN 0-674-30776-3
- The Golden Helix: Inside Biotech Ventures. University Science Books, 2002, ISBN 1-891389-19-X
Enzymatic Synthesis of DNA, John Wiley & Sons, 1961
DNA Synthesis, W. H. Freeman and Co., San Francisco, 1974 ISBN: 0-7167-0586-9
DNA Replication, W. H. Freeman and Co., San Francisco, 1980 ISBN 0-7167-1102-8
DNA Replication (2nd Edition) with Tania A. Baker., W. H. Freeman and Co., New York,
1992 ISBN 0-7167-2003-5
External links
- Kornberg's Nobel Foundation biography
- Kornberg's Nobel Lecture The Biologic Synthesis of Deoxyribonucleic Acid from Nobelprize.org website
- Stanford University page
- Obituary in The Independent. 3 November 2007.
- Obituary in The Times. 7 November 2007.
- Obituary in New York Times. October 28, 2007.
- The Arthur Kornberg Papers - Profiles in Science, National Library of Medicine
- Never A Dull Enzyme Autobiography by Arthur Kornberg, July 1989.