Seymour Benzer (October 15, 1921-November 30, 2007) was an accomplished American physicist, molecular biologist and behavioral geneticist. is the 288th day of the year (289th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1921 (MCMXXI) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar). ... is the 334th day of the year (335th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... Not to be confused with physician, a person who practices medicine. ... Molecular biology is the study of biology at a molecular level. ... Behavioural genetics is the field of biology that studies the role of genetics in animal (including human) behaviour. ...

Research

Molecular biology

Seymour Benzer started his career as a solid state physicist at Purdue University. After completing his Ph.D, he decided to start research in biophysics and moved into the area of bacteriophage genetics. After a short stay at Caltech, Benzer returned to Purdue where he developed a new genetic technique involving recombination in mutant bacteriophage^[1] (the rII system). Taking advantage of the enormous number of recombinants that could be analyzed in the rII mutant system, Benzer provided the first evidence that the gene is not an indivisible entity, as previously believed. Benzer proved that mutations were distributed in many different parts of a single gene, and the resolving power of his system allowed him to discern mutants that differ at the level of a single nucleotide. Benzer's experiments with the rII system are widely considered among the most elegant experiments in modern genetics, and many^{[citation needed]} believe that Benzer should have been awarded the Nobel Prize for it. Not to be confused with physician, a person who practices medicine. ... Purdue redirects here. ... Biophysics (also biological physics) is an interdisciplinary science that applies the theories and methods of physics, to questions of biology. ... An artists rendering of an Enterobacteria phage T4. ... California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (commonly known as Caltech) is a private, coeducational university located in Pasadena, California, in the United States. ... Recombination usually refers to the biological process of genetic recombination and meiosis, a genetic event that occurs during the formation of sperm and egg cells. ... For other uses, see Gene (disambiguation). ... For linguistic mutation, see Apophony. ... A nucleotide is a chemical compound that consists of 3 portions: a heterocyclic base, a sugar, and one or more phosphate groups. ... The Nobel Prize (Swedish: ) was established in Alfred Nobels will in 1895, and it was first awarded in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, and Peace in 1901. ...

In his molecular biology period, Benzer dissected the fine structure of a single gene, laying down the ground work for decades of mutation analysis and genetic engineering, and setting up a paradigm (using the rII phage) that would later be used by Francis Crick and Sydney Brenner to establish the triplet code of DNA. Francis Harry Compton Crick OM FRS (8 June 1916 – 28 July 2004) was an English molecular biologist, physicist, and neuroscientist, who is most noted for being one of the co-discoverers of the structure of the DNA molecule in 1953. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... RNA codons. ... The structure of part of a DNA double helix Deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA, is a nucleic acid molecule that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms. ...

Behavioral genetics

After his work in phage genetics, Benzer turned to the fruit fly Drosophila to study the genetic basis of animal behavior. He then pioneered the field of neurogenetics working with mutants of Drosophila melanogaster. Benzer, with student Ron Konopka, discovered the first circadian rhythm mutants in a gene they called "period". This was the first of several seminal studies of single genes affecting behavior, studies that have been replicated in other animal models and are now the basis for the booming field of molecular biology of behavior. In particular, the study of circadian rhythms has now become ubiquitous, and homologs of the original gene have been identified in many organisms. Type species Drosophila funebris (Fabricius, 1787) Drosophila is a genus of small flies, belonging to the family Drosophilidae, whose members are often called fruit flies, or more appropriately vinegar flies, wine flies, pomace flies, grape flies, and picked fruit-flies, a reference to the characteristic of many species to linger... Binomial name Meigen, 1830[1] Drosophila melanogaster (from the Greek for black-bellied dew-lover) is a two-winged insect that belongs to the Diptera, the order of the flies. ... A circadian rhythm is a roughly-24-hour cycle in the physiological processes of living beings, including plants, animals, fungi and cyanobacteria. ...

Benzer was at the forefront of the study of neurodegeneration in fruitflies, modeling human diseases and attempting to suppress them. He also contributed to the field of aging biology, looking for mutants with altered longevity and trying to dissect the mechanisms by which an organism can escape the inevitable functional downfall and its associated diseases.

The present

Remarkably, with a career that started with the molecular biology revolution of the 1950s, Seymour Benzer was to the end very active as a researcher, and lead a productive lab at the California Institute of Technology where post-doctorate and graduate students thrived. The California Institute of Technology (commonly referred to as Caltech)[1] is a private, coeducational research university located in Pasadena, California, in the United States. ...

Few scientists have had the opportunity to renew themselves every decade and make such significant contributions to many different fields.

He was the James G. Boswell Professor of Neuroscience, Emeritus, at the California Institute of Technology.

Honors

He is a recipient of the Gairdner Foundation International Award (1964), the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research (1971),the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize from Columbia University in 1976, the National Medal of Science (1982), the Wolf Prize in Medicine (1991), the Crafoord Prize (1993), a second Gairdner award for his contributions to the field of neurogenetics (2004) and the Albany Medical Center Prize (2006). The Gairdner Foundation International Award is given annually at a special dinner to three to six people for outstanding discoveries or contributions to medical science. ... The Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research is awarded by the Lasker Foundation for the understanding, diagnosis, prevention, treatment, and cure of disease. ... Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize for Biology or Biochemistry is an annual prize awarded by Columbia University to a researcher or group of researchers that have made an outstanding contribution in basic research in the fields of biology or biochemistry. ... Alma Mater Columbia University is a private university in the United States and a member of the Ivy League. ... National Medal of Science The National Medal of Science is an honor given by the President of the United States to individuals in science and engineering who have made important contributions to the advancement of knowledge in the fields of behavioral and social sciences, biology, chemistry, engineering, mathematics and physics. ... Past winners of the Wolf Prize in Medicine: 1978 George D. Snell, Jean Dausset, Jon J. van Rood 1979 Roger W. Sperry, Arvid Carlsson, Oleh Hornykiewicz 1980 Cesar Milstein, Leo Sachs, Sir James L. Gowans 1981 Barbara McClintock, Stanley N. Cohen 1982 Jean-Pierre Changeux, Solomon H. Snyder, Sir James... The Crafoord Prize was established in 1980 by Holger Crafoord, the inventor of the artificial kidney, and his wife Anna-Greta Crafoord. ...

Benzer is one of only a handful of two-time winners of the Gairdner Award, widely recognized as one the top prizes in the biological sciences, and often a Nobel Prize predictor. The Albany Medical Center Prize has been called the "American Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine." The Nobel Prize (Swedish: ) was established in Alfred Nobels will in 1895, and it was first awarded in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, and Peace in 1901. ... Emil Adolf von Behring was the first person to receive the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, for his work on the treatment of diphtheria. ...

Seymour Benzer was a member of the French Academy of Sciences, the US National Academy of Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Royal Society. Louis XIV visiting the Académie in 1671 The French Academy of Sciences (Académie des sciences) is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French scientific research. ... President Harding and the National Academy of Sciences at the White House, Washington, DC, April 1921 The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine. ... The American Philosophical Society is a discussion group founded as the Junto in 1743 by Benjamin Franklin. ... The House of the Academy, Cambridge, Massachusetts. ... For other uses, see Royal Society (disambiguation). ...

Books

Benzer is the subject of the 1999 book Time, Love, Memory: A Great Biologist and His Quest for the Origins of Behavior by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jonathan Weiner and of the 2006 book Reconceiving the Gene: Seymour Benzer's Adventures in Phage Genetics by Lawrence Holmes. The Pulitzer Prize is an American award regarded as the highest national honor in print journalism, literary achievements, and musical composition. ... Jonathan Weiner is a Pulitzer Winning author of non-fiction books on his biology observations, in particular evolution in the Galápagos Islands, genetics, and the environment. ...

References

1. ^ Seymour Benzer, On the topography of the genetic fine structure, PNAS, Vol. 17, p. 403-415, 1961.

Seymour benzer, On the topography of the genetic fine structure, PNAS, v 47, pages 403-426, 1961. The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA), mostly commonly referred to as PNAS, is the official publication of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. ...

External links

• Dr. Benzer's home page at the Caltech Biology Division website
• Benzer Lab home page
• Interview with Seymour Benzer conducted by the Oral History Project of the Caltech Archives
• A Conversation with Jonathan Weiner, author of Time, Love, Memory
• The Official Site of Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize