Paul Berg
Paul Berg
Paul Bergis an American biochemist and professor emeritus at Stanford University. He was the recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1980, along with Walter Gilbert and Frederick Sanger. The award recognized their contributions to basic research involving nucleic acids. Berg received his undergraduate education at Penn State University, where he majored in biochemistry. He received his Ph.D. in biochemistry from Case Western Reserve University in 1952. Berg worked as a professor at Washington University School of Medicine and...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionScientist
Date of Birth30 June 1926
CityNew York City, NY
CountryUnited States of America
The production and consumption of genetically engineered food plants are realities although their dissemination has been limited.
Harland Wood, the department head, was an inspiring scientist and teacher but he was also devoted to his students and colleagues.
Literally hundreds of millions of experiments, many inconceivable in 1975, have been carried out in the last 30 years without incident.
Looking back, I realize that nurturing curiosity and the instinct to seek solutions are perhaps the most important contributions education can make.
Novel technologies and ideas that impinge on human biology and their perceived impact on human values have renewed strains in the relationship between science and society.
By then, I was making the slow transition from classical biochemistry to molecular biology and becoming increasingly preoccupied with how genes act and how proteins are made.
Paradoxically, no such embargo exists for the drugs and therapies that have revolutionized the treatment of serious diseases although many of them were created with the same technologies.
That work led to the emergence of the recombinant DNA technology thereby providing a major tool for analyzing mammalian gene structure and function and formed the basis for me receiving the 1980 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.