Daniel Nathans

Nathans, Daniel

(1928–  ) geneticist; born in Wilmington, Del. He was a clinical associate at the National Cancer Institute (1955–57), then a medical resident at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center (1957–59). He became a guest investigator at Rockefeller University (1959–62) before joining Johns Hopkins (1962). His studies using restriction enzymes led to the first genetic map of the DNA molecule and made possible the laboratory synthesis of microbial recombinant DNA. He was awarded one-third of the 1978 Nobel Prize in physiology for this pioneering research.

The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography, by John S. Bowman. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995. Reproduced with permission.