5 Famous Geneticists

Name: Edward B. Lewis
Birth: May 20, 1918 – July 21, 2004
Year of Fame: 1995 (Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine)

Contributions:  During the 1950s, Dr. Lewis studied the effects of radiation from X-rays, nuclear fallout and other sources as possible causes of cancer. His Nobel Prize winning studies with Drosophila, founded the field of developmental genetics and laid the groundwork for our current understanding of the universal, evolutionarily conserved strategies controlling animal development.

Publications: Lewis' key publications  in the fields of genetics, developmental biology, radiation and cancer are presented in the book Genes.

Name:Carolyn Widney "Carol" Greider

Birth: April 15, 1961-

Year of Fame:2009( Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine)

Contributions: Together with Elizabeth Blackburn and Jack W. Szostak, they discover  how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase.

Publications: Blackburn and Greider  published their findings in the journal Cell in December, 1985.

Name:Barbara McClintock
Birth: June 16, 1902 – September 2, 1992
Year of Fame:1983(unshared Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine)

Contributions:McClintock studied chromosomes and how they change during reproduction in maize.  She developed the technique for visualizing maize chromosomes and used microscopic analysis to demonstrate many fundamental genetic ideas, including genetic recombination by crossing-over during meiosis—a mechanism by which chromosomes exchange information.

Publications:McClintock's key  publications are presented in the book: Genetics,Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, American Journal of Botany, and American Naturalist.  




 

Name: Arthur Kornberg

Birth: March 3, 1918 – October 26, 2007

Year of Fame: 1959(The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine )

Contributions: Kornberg's 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. He discovery of "the mechanisms in the biological synthesis of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)" together with Dr. Severo Ochoa of New York University.

Publications: two Books,For the Love of Enzymes: The Odyssey of a Biochemist (1989) and The Golden Helix: Inside Biotech Ventures (2002)

Name: Hermann Joseph Muller

Birth: December 21, 1890 – April 5, 1967

Year of Fame: 1946(unshared Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine )

Contributions: Muller discovers the production of mutations by means of X-ray irradiation".

Publications: The Mechanism of Mendelian Heredity(1915)