Arthur Kornberg

Facts

Arthur Kornberg

Photo from the Nobel Foundation archive.

Arthur Kornberg
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1959

Born: 3 March 1918, Brooklyn, NY, USA

Died: 26 October 2007, Stanford, CA, USA

Affiliation at the time of the award: Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

Prize motivation: “for their discovery of the mechanisms in the biological synthesis of ribonucleic acid and deoxyribonucleic acid”

Prize share: 1/2

Work

The substances known as DNA and RNA bear organisms' genetic code and also determine their vital processes. Arthur Kornberg took an interest in the way DNA and RNA are formed, and which enzymes steer this process. Enzymes are substances that speed up chemical processes inside organisms' cells without being consumed. By studying bacteria, Kornberg succeeded in isolating DNA polymerase in 1956–an enzyme that is active in the formation of DNA. Using a DNA molecule as a blueprint, the enzyme builds a copy of the DNA molecule from nucleotides, which are the building blocks of DNA.

To cite this section
MLA style: Arthur Kornberg – Facts. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Prize Outreach AB 2023. Fri. 29 Sep 2023. <https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/1959/kornberg/facts/>

Back to top Back To Top Takes users back to the top of the page

Watch the 2023 Nobel Prize announcements

Don't miss the Nobel Prize announcements 2-9 October!

Watch the live stream of the announcements.
Illustration

Explore prizes and laureates

Look for popular awards and laureates in different fields, and discover the history of the Nobel Prize.