Genetics and Molecular Biology
The People (19)
Jacob Lwoff Monod
François Jacob, André Lwoff and Jacques Monod of the Institut Pasteur explained how genes are switched on and off in bacteria, sharing the 1965 Nobel Prize.
Read the deep dive →Hermann Muller
American geneticist (1890–1967) who showed in 1927 that X-rays cause mutations, won the 1946 Nobel Prize and spent decades warning about radiation's hidden genetic harm.
Read the deep dive →Barbara McClintock
American cytogeneticist (1902–1992) who discovered mobile genetic elements, the jumping genes, in maize and received the unshared 1983 Nobel Prize decades after the work.
Read the deep dive →Delbruck Hershey Luria
Max Delbrück, Salvador Luria and Alfred Hershey led the Phage Group, using bacterial viruses to work out how genes replicate; they shared the 1969 Nobel Prize.
Read the deep dive →Beadle Tatum Lederberg
George Beadle and Edward Tatum showed in bread mould that genes control chemical steps; Joshua Lederberg found that bacteria swap genes. All shared the 1958 Nobel.
Read the deep dive →Ochoa Kornberg
Spanish-born biochemist Severo Ochoa and his former student Arthur Kornberg found enzymes that build RNA and DNA; Kornberg's DNA polymerase underlies today's PCR tests.
Read the deep dive →Nirenberg Khorana Holley
Marshall Nirenberg, Har Gobind Khorana and Robert Holley read the genetic code, showing which three-letter codons specify which amino acids; they shared the 1968 Nobel Prize.
Read the deep dive →Watson Crick Wilkins
Francis Crick, James Watson and Maurice Wilkins shared the 1962 Nobel Prize for the double helix, built on Rosalind Franklin's X-ray measurements at King's College London.
Read the deep dive →Baltimore Temin Dulbecco
Renato Dulbecco, Howard Temin and David Baltimore made animal virology quantitative and found reverse transcriptase in 1970, the enzyme that HIV treatment now targets.
Read the deep dive →Arber Nathans Smith
Werner Arber, Daniel Nathans and Hamilton Smith explained and used the bacterial restriction enzymes that cut DNA, earning the 1978 Nobel Prize for founding genetic engineering.
Read the deep dive →Bishop Varmus
Michael Bishop and Harold Varmus showed that cancer genes carried by viruses are stolen copies of our own cells' genes, winning the 1989 Nobel Prize.
Read the deep dive →Brenner Horvitz Sulston
Sydney Brenner, John Sulston and Robert Horvitz mapped every cell of a tiny worm and found the genes for programmed cell death, winning the 2002 Nobel.
Read the deep dive →Blackburn Greider Szostak
Elizabeth Blackburn, Carol Greider and Jack Szostak discovered how telomeres and the enzyme telomerase protect chromosome ends, sharing the 2009 Nobel Prize in equal thirds.
Read the deep dive →Roberts Sharp
Richard Roberts and Phillip Sharp found in 1977 that genes come in split pieces joined by splicing, a discovery recognised with the 1993 Nobel Prize.
Read the deep dive →Capecchi Evans Smithies
Mario Capecchi, Martin Evans and Oliver Smithies developed gene targeting in mouse embryonic stem cells, the knockout-mouse method recognised with the 2007 Nobel Prize.
Read the deep dive →Svante Paabo
Swedish geneticist who founded paleogenomics, reading DNA from ancient bones to sequence the Neanderthal genome, and received the unshared 2022 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
Read the deep dive →Hall Rosbash Young
Jeffrey Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael Young, American geneticists, worked out the molecular gears of the circadian clock in fruit flies, winning the 2017 Nobel Prize.
Read the deep dive →Fire Mello
American scientists Andrew Fire and Craig Mello discovered RNA interference, gene silencing by double-stranded RNA, in a 1998 worm study that won the 2006 Nobel Prize.
Read the deep dive →Ambros Ruvkun
American geneticists Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun discovered microRNA in a tiny worm, publishing back-to-back papers in 1993 and sharing the 2024 Nobel Prize.
Read the deep dive →Everyone in this group is a Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine, grouped by what the prize was awarded for. The genetic code, the double helix, jumping genes, RNA interference, telomeres. It also holds the one page that fits nowhere else: Svante Pääbo won for ancient DNA and human origins, which is paleogenomics rather than medicine.