Paul Berg

Paul Berg (http://www.whywellwin.com/stemcells_left.asp)

Paul Berg was born in Brooklyn, New York on June 30th 1926. Being born in Brooklyn, Paul Berg spent most of his childhood growing up in the gated community of Sea Gate. After receiving his diploma from Abraham Lincoln High School in 1943 he continued on to college, receiving his Bachelor’s Degree in Biochemistry from Penn State University in 1948. Ongoing with college Berg attended Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, receiving his Ph.D. in biochemistry in 1952. There he is a member of the Beta Sigma Rho Fraternity which is now Beta Sigma Beta. While studying as a post graduate he studied the use of radioisotope tracers in intermediary metabolism resulting into the understanding of how foodstuffs are converted into cellular materials through the use of isotopic carbons or heavy nitrogen atoms. Being a complete success his doctorate paper was published as the conversion of formic acid, formaldehyde and methanol to fully reduced states of methyl groups in Methionine. Being one of the first men to successfully demonstrate that folic acid and B12 cofactors had roles in the past experiments he had done such as methionine.

In 1975 Berg decided to organize the “Asilomar conference of recombinant DNA” following the delay on certain recombinant DNA research until the research could be completed showing all facts of the risk of recombinant DNA. The 1975 conference calculated the hazards that could potentially happen alongside of setting guidelines. Seeing his achievements in the science world President Regan decided it was right to give Paul Berg the National Medal of Science in 1983. Known as the father of modern genetic engineering Paul Berg is most famous for his outstanding work with the recombinant DNA.

Along with his partners Walter Gilbert and Fredrick Sanger, Paul Berg was awarded 1/2 the Nobel Prize for chemistry. Berg received half while the other two scientists shared half receiving 1/4 of the prize. They were all awarded for their research of the nucleic acids. In 1991, Berg accepted a position as the head of the scientific advisory committee of the Human Genome Project.

Currently Dr. Berg is the Robert and Vivian Cahill Professor of Cancer Research and Biochemistry at the age of 84.