Sol Spiegelman

Sol Spiegelman ( born December 14, 1914 in Brooklyn, New York City; † January 20, 1983 in Columbia, Herkimer County, New York) was an American molecular biologist. He became known for his research in the fields of genetics, virology and cancer.

Spiegelman studied mathematics at the College of the City of New York ( 1939), at Columbia University and at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, where he 1944 Ph.D. received his doctorate. Since 1946 he worked at the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign, where he later worked as a professor of microbiology.

Spiegelman was the discoverer of the fact that only one of the two strands that make up DNA is the genetic information encoded that is transcribed into RNA. In 1962, he developed a technique for the isolation of RNA and DNA molecules from cells, so-called hybridization.

From 1969 on he was professor of human genetics at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, a graduate school at Columbia University, and director of the Institute of Cancer Research. In this role, he worked mainly on the molecular basis of cancer, especially in tumors induced by viruses, leukemia and breast cancer. In 1974 he was awarded the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research in 1981 with the International Antonio Feltrinelli Prize -. Since 1975 he was a university professor.

Spiegelman was married and had a daughter and two sons.

Evidence

• Excerpts from an obituary of the New York Times from 1983, Online