Beschreibung:

The 1978 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine awarded to Daniel Nathans for his role in "the discovery of restriction enzymes and their application to problems of molecular genetics," being the first major tool of the genetics revolution and central to the field of molecular biology. NATHANS, Daniel (1928-1999). Nobel Prize Medal in Physiology or Medicine awarded to Daniel Nathans in 1978. 23 carat gold, 66mm diameter, 206.8 grams (6.65 oz.). Profile bust of Alfred Nobel facing left on obverse, with “ALFR. NOBEL” at left and his dates in roman numerals at right, signed along lower edge “E. Lindberg 1902,” reverse with allegorical vignette depicting the figure of Medicine, with an open book on her lap, collecting water from a spring to quench an ailing girl’s thirst, signed at right “E. Lindberg,” legend “Inventas vitam iuvat excoluisse per artes” around top, engraved “D. Nathans / MCMLXXVIII” on lower plaque between the caption “Reg Universitas – Med Chir Carol”; housed in the original red morocco gilt case, lettered “Daniel Nathans,” interior lined in suede and satin. WITH : Daniel Nathans’s 1978 Nobel Prize Diploma, two leaves, 333 x 212mm, in red morocco gilt portfolio and original suede-lined cloth clamshell box; both portfolio and box gilt-lettered with recipient’s initials on upper covers. Very fine condition. There are no more fundamental tools of modern biotechnology than restriction enzymes, the molecular scissors used to slice DNA for analysis. Within a decade of their discovery, restriction enzymes launched a revolution in biomedical science that continues to the present day, including sequencing of the human genome, genetic testing, and the development of a new generation of gene-spliced medicines to treat diseases as diverse as arthritis, diabetes, and cancer. Daniel Nathans was born in 1928 in Wilmington, Delaware, the youngest of nine children of Russian-Jewish immigrants. He won a medical school scholarship at Washington University in St. Louis and interned and did his residency at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center. It wasn’t long, however, before he discovered his true calling in biochemical research, first at the Rockefeller Institute and then at the Johns Hopkins Medical School in the Department of Microbiology. Nathans arrived at Johns Hopkins in 1962 and remained there for the rest of his career. By the mid 1960s, Nathans’s research interests were focused on the genetic mechanisms of tumor viruses. In his own words, “It was quite clear that tumor viruses … were beautiful models of genetic mechanisms in mammalian cells." With this idea in mind, Nathans took a six-month sabbatical at the Weizmann Institute in Israel to study how infection by a small tumor virus, Simian Virus 40 (SV40), causes cells to switch from normal to cancerous growth. While at the Weizmann Institute, Nathans received a letter from his Johns Hopkins colleague, Hamilton Smith (b.1931). Smith described his discovery of what is now called a type II restriction enzyme. He had isolated the enzyme from the bacterium Haemophilus influenzae and had shown that it cut DNA at specific sites. This discovery built on the work of the Swiss geneticist Werner Arber (b.1929), who had predicted the existence of restriction enzymes and provided a framework for understanding their biochemistry. Nathans quickly realized the practical implications of Smith’s discovery: if any DNA segment could be cut at specific sites, then one could use the resulting DNA fragments to both analyze and alter the structure of genes with far greater precision than had previously been possible. In 1971, Nathans and his graduate student, Kathleen Danna, published the first step in this new paradigm for dissecting genes and genomes. By combining the techniques of restriction enzyme cleavage and gel electrophoresis, they became the first scientists to create a genome map based on DNA sequence. Thirty-five years later, Nobel laureate Richard Roberts reflected on the signifi