Norton Zinder

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Norton David Zinder (born November 7, 1928 in New York City - † February 3, 2012 ) was an American molecular geneticist and biochemist .

life and work

Zinder graduated from Columbia University with a bachelor's degree in 1947, received his master's degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1949, where he received his doctorate in medical microbiology in 1949 with Joshua Lederberg . In 1952 he became an assistant at Rockefeller University , 1956 associate, 1958 associate professor and 1964 professor. In 1977 he became John D. Rockefeller Jr. Professor of Microbial Genetics . In 1989 he officially retired. But until shortly before his death he headed a laboratory at Rockefeller University, where he continued his bacteriophage research .

In 1952, in the Lederberg laboratory, Zinder discovered the transfer of genes between two bacteria (Salmonella in their experiments) by bacteriophages, which he and Lederberg called genetic transduction (another form of transfer was previously found by Lederberg and Edward Lawrie Tatum in E. coli ). Zinder also found the first bacteriophage with RNA as hereditary material at Rockefeller University (working with his student Tim Loeb).

Harvey Lodish was one of his PhD students .

In 1969 he became a member of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and he was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science . In 1966 he received the NAS Award in Molecular Biology and in 1962 the Eli Lilly and Company-Elanco Research Award . From 1979 to 1982 he headed the genetics section of the NAS.

He served on the Board of Army Science and Technology, chaired the National Institutes of Health committee that assessed the national cancer plan, and served on the Human Genome Project Advisory Board .

Fonts

  • with J. Lederberg: Concentration of biochemical mutants of bacteria with penicillin, Journal of the American Chemical Society, Volume 70, 1948, pp. 4267-4268.
  • with J. Lederberg: Genetic exchange in Salmonella, Journal of Bacteriology, Volume 64, 1952, pp. 679-699.
  • with J. Lederberg, EM Lederberg, ER Lively: Recombination analysis of bacterial heredity, Cold Spring Harbor Symposia on Quantitative Biology, Volume 16, 1951, pp. 413-443.
  • with Tim Loeb: A Bacteriophage Containing RNA, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 47, 1961, pp. 282-289.

literature

  • Marjorie Russell, Peter Model: In Memoriam: Norton Zinder (1929-2012) Geneticist , Genetics, Volume 19, 2012, pp. 291-292. PMC 3338268 (free full text)
  • H. Lodish, N. Fedoroff: Norton Zinder (1928-2012) , Science, Volume 335, 2012, p. 1316

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Pamela Kalte u. a. American Men and Women of Science , Thomson Gale 2004.
personal data
SURNAME Zinder, Norton
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Zinder, Norton David
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American biologist
DATE OF BIRTH November 7, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City
DATE OF DEATH 3rd February 2012