Arthur Kornberg 1918–2007

Forty years ago, a Japanese press release issued on the occasion of a visit by Arthur Kornberg called him the “father of life in a test tube.” This was in reference to his laboratory’s 1967 feat of copying single-stranded circular DNA into a replicative form and then back to an infectious viral DNA strand using purified DNA polymerase and DNA ligase (Figure 1, left panel). Although a somewhat embarrassing mischaracterization of this stunning achievement, the comment offers a kernel of truth about Kornberg. He was in fact the father of DNA biochemistry, and his efforts gave rise to a revolution in our understanding of the mechanism of chromosome duplication. His laboratory, and more broadly his department at Stanford, provided the foundation for an emerging discipline of recombinant DNA and genetic engineering. The life and accomplishments of this remarkable man are chronicled in his autobiography, For the Love of Enzymes, and in a shorter version published as a Perspective chapter in the Annual Reviews of Biochemistry, entitled Never a Dull Enzyme (58: 1–30, 1989). As a child of a Lower East Side New York City working class immigrant family, the precocious Kornberg entered the City College of New York at age 15 and decided to pursue a medical career. The prevailing anti-Semitism of the time limited his options and the only institution to which he was admitted, the University of Rochester, did so in spite of objections raised by the Dean of the Medical School (of course they now have a research building named in Arthur’s honor). After an internship, Arthur enlisted in the Coast Guard in 1941 and was posted as a ship’s physician, which ended rather abruptly in 1942 when, as Arthur once admitted, “the ship’s Captain didn’t seem to know who was in charge.” Arthur began his research career in a position at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) where he engaged in physiology studies in nutritional sci-