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Heinz Fraenkel-Conrat | |
|---|---|
 Heinz Fraenkel-Conrat | |
| Born | (1910-07-29)July 29, 1910 |
| Died | April 10, 1999(1999-04-10) (aged 88) Oakland, California, U.S. |
| Citizenship | United States |
| Education | University of Breslau,University of Edinburgh |
| Known for | Tobacco Mosaic Virus |
| Awards | Lasker Award (1958) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Biochemistry |
| Institutions | University of California, Berkeley |
| Thesis | Alkaloids of solanum pseudocapsicum |
Heinz Ludwig Fraenkel-Conrat (July 29, 1910 – April 10, 1999) was abiochemist, famous for his research onviruses.
Fraenkel-Conrat was born inBreslau,Germany.
He was the son of Lili Conrat and Professor Ludwig Fraenkel, director of the Women's Clinic of the University of Breslau. His father was a prominent gynecologist and medical researcher who published regarding endocrine function, social gynecology, and sexology during the first decades of the 20th century, and was one of many scientists summarily dismissed from their positions by the Nazis.
He received an MD from theUniversity of Breslau in 1933. Due to the rise ofNazism in Germany he left forScotland in 1933 and finished his PhD at theUniversity of Edinburgh (1936).[1] After completing his doctorate, he emigrated to theUnited States, becoming anaturalized citizen in 1941. In the 1940s Fraenkel-Conrat visited his sister and brother-in-law, biochemistKarl Slotta, a pioneer in the study ofprogesterone,estriol, and medical use ofvenom, who was then director of the Chemical Institute of theInstituto Butantan inSão Paulo,Brazil, from 1935 to 1948. Frankel-Conrat remained for one year of biochemical research at the Instituto Butantan. He worked at a number of institutes before joining the faculty at theUniversity of California, Berkeley in 1952 where he remained until his death.
His most noted research was on thetobacco mosaic virus (TMV)[2] and theholmes ribgrass virus (HRV). He was described by a colleague as "one of the pioneers in the early days of virology with (his work on) the tobacco mosaic virus."[3] He discovered that the genetic control of viral reproduction wasRNA and that it is carried in the nucleic core of each virus. In 1955 he and biophysicistRobley Williams showed that a functional virus could be created out of purified RNA and aprotein coat. In 1960 he announced the complete sequencing of the 158amino acids in the virus.
He died of lung failure on April 10, 1999, at theKaiser Hospital in Oakland, at the age of eighty-eight.[4]
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