Paul Naim Berg is an American biochemist, professor at Stanford University, an honorary member of the US National Academy of Sciences. He is a Nobel laureate for achievements in the field of chemistry. It is known that Paul Berg created the first transgenic organism. The scientist was awarded the National Scientific Medal for his contribution to the development of science.
Biography
Paul Berg was born on June 30, 1926 in Brooklyn, USA in a Jewish family. Father was a textile worker, mother was a housewife. Paul was inspired to engage in scientific activities by Paul de Cruy's books “The Hunters for Microbes” and Sinclair Lewis “Arrowsmith”, which he had read at an early age.
Schools and universities
He was educated at the Abraham Lincoln Institute, which he graduated in 1943, rapidly completing several elementary school classes.
At the age of 17, Paul Berg decides to take part in military affairs, so he enlisted in the Navy, intending to become a pilot. Awaiting an answer, he enters the Pennsylvania State University at the Department of Biochemistry, which he graduated in 1948.
Until 1946, Paul served in a submarine, and then returned to study again.
In 1952, he received his doctorate from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. There, Berg wrote a dissertation in which he studied the conversion of formic acid, formaldehyde and methanol to a fully reduced alpha amino acid methionine using vitamins of the B9 group (folic acid) and B12.
Since 1959, Paul is a professor of biochemistry at Stanford University. He is also a member of the US National Academy of Sciences.
Discoveries and scientific activities
Over his years of life, Paul Berg has made a significant contribution to the development of science. While studying in graduate school, he was engaged in research of how food products turn into cellular material when these processes are affected by isotopic carbon atoms or heavy nitrogen atoms. Subsequently, Paul Berg described the results in his doctoral dissertation.
First, the scientist was engaged in research in the field of enzymology, where he studied the structure, functioning and activity of enzymes. So he met with talented scientists who specialized in this field - Arthur Kornberg and German Kalkar. Working with Herman at the Institute of Cytophysiology in Copenhagen in the hope of investigating glucose metabolism, they discover a new enzyme that made it clear that biological systems can carry energy in several ways.
In the years 1953-1954, working in the laboratory of Kornberg in Washington, Paul Berg worked on metabolism, as a result of which energy is released. He later found out that amino acids, turning into a special form, can attach to transport RNA, which then transfer them to ribosomes. For this discovery, the scientist was awarded the prize.
In 1959, Paul moved to Stanford University with Arthur Kornberg, where he studied the synthesis of proteins from amino acids. He managed to understand that each amino acid has its own transport RNA, which means that experience took on more complex turns. It took many years.
In 1967, scientists concluded that if genetic changes were made to t-RNA, then the genetic code would not be read correctly in the ribosomes. Being engaged in research, Berg was able to identify RNA polymerase in Escherichia coli.
In 1968-1970, the scientist was studying the virus-40, which causes a tumor in monkeys.
In the field of biochemistry in 1972, Paul Berg was able to make another discovery. He discovered a molecular hybrid by combining the DNA of two viruses with a chemical reaction. Taking virus-40 and bacteriophage lambda, he managed to break their genetic material in special places under the influence of biologically active substances. Thus, the scientist received recombinant DNA.
After a while, the genes began to receive automatically. However, Berg and other scholars were worried that artificially generated viruses could contribute to the emergence of new cancer-causing bacteria, so Paul stopped experimenting and such studies were banned.
Soon it was revealed that such experiments were not dangerous and that there were no need to follow strict rules. Such studies have led to the heyday of genetic engineering, where they received various pharmaceuticals (for example, growth hormones).
In 1985, Berg became one of the founders of the interdisciplinary center of molecular and genetic medicine, where he later became director.
Later, he and his colleagues created an institute for biological research. They were engaged in research on a DNA molecule, the production of interleukins synthesized by white blood cells, and cloning. Similar experiments are still being conducted, and the center created by Paul Berg is one of the largest at the moment.
Personal life
In 1947, Paul Berg married Mildred Levy, whom he first met at the institute. The couple had a son, John.
Awards and prizes
Paul Berg is one of those brilliant scientists who became Nobel Prize winners. Together with Walter Gilbert and Frederick Singer, in 1980 he received this award for his achievements in chemistry, where colleagues conducted basic research on nucleic acids, especially hybrid DNA.
In 1959, Berg received the Eli Lilly Prize in Biological Chemistry for RNA research.
In 1985, the 40th President of the United States, Ronald Reagan, awarded him the National Science Medal.
Retirement
Paul Berg stopped doing research in 2000. He is currently a professor at Stanford University. He is interested in writing books about genetics.