The needs of medicine have inspired much of the progress in the biological sciences during the twentieth century.
In turn, many advances in pure science have quickly been harnessed toward understanding, preventing and treating
human disease. Molecular biology, the understanding of how life works at the most basic level, has enabled
researchers to learn about how organisms function and malfunction. The recent sequencing of the human genome
is providing an explosion of new information, the impact of which is just beginning to be felt, but which is expected
to revolutionize both scientific research and clinical practice.
- Christian B. Anfinsen
Christian Boehmer Anfinsen, Jr. (1916-1995), was an American
biochemist who shared the 1972 Nobel Prize for work that helped
explain the structure and composition of proteins in living cells.
(Available November 2000; press release)
- Oswald T. Avery
Oswald T. Avery (1877-1955) was one of this country's first molecular
biologists, whose findings proved that the genetic material is DNA.
(Available September 1998; press release, updated August 1999, January 2000, November 2002)
- Julius Axelrod
Julius Axelrod (b. 1912) is an American pharmacologist and neuroscientist
who shared the 1970 Nobel Prize for his discovery of the actions of
neurotransmitters in regulating the metabolism of the nervous system.
(Available May 2000; press release)
- Donald S. Fredrickson
Donald S. Fredrickson (1924-2002) was an American physiologist and
biomedical research leader who made significant contributions to
medicine over the course of four decades.
(Available October 2002; press release)
- Joshua Lederberg
Joshua Lederberg (b. 1925) is an American geneticist and microbiologist
who received the Nobel Prize in 1958 for "his discoveries
concerning genetic recombination and the organization of the genetic material of bacteria."
(Available March 1999; press release, updated January 2000, June 2000, February 2001, September 2001, November 2001, June 2002, November 2002, June 2004)
- Barbara McClintock
Barbara McClintock (1902-1992) was an American geneticist who
won the 1983 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering
the ability of genes to change position on the chromosome.
(Available October 2001; press release)
- Marshall W. Nirenberg
Marshall W. Nirenberg (b. 1927) is an American biochemist who
shared the 1968 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on
deciphering the genetic code.
(Available May 2001; press release, updated November 2002)
- Linus Pauling
Linus Pauling (1901-1994) was an American chemist who won the
1954 Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his research into the nature of
the chemical bond and its application to the elucidation of the
structure of complex substances." He also won the 1962 Nobel Peace
Prize, making him the only person to win two unshared Nobel prizes.
(Available February 2002, updated June 2002, updated February 2003; press release)
- Martin Rodbell
Martin Rodbell (1925-1998) was an American biochemist and molecular
endocrinologist who shared the Nobel Prize in 1994
for his discovery of G-proteins and the principles of signal transduction in
cellular communication.
(Available November 1999; press release, updated January 2000)
- Florence R. Sabin
Florence R. Sabin (1871-1953) was an American anatomist and medical researcher.
She received a Lasker Award in 1951 for her work in public health.
(Available August 2003; press release)
U.S. National Library of Medicine, 8600 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20894
National Institutes of Health,
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