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J [, - - M I JWSI FROM THE ROCKEFELLER UNIVERSITY • . 1,230 YORK AVENUE. NEW YORK, NIEW Y'ORK 10021 r CONPA.CT Fulvio-Bardossi (212) 360-1261 Public Information BIOGRAPHY OF PROFESSOR NORTO1,Z' D.. ZZIvDER. Norton,David Zinder, professor of The Rockefeller University, is a geneticist and microbiologist whose research on the genetics of bacteria and on the properties of bacteriophages (viruses which infect bacteria) has provided important new infor•matior. on the mechanisms of heredity. His first major di:scover• y-- transduction in bacteria -- resulted from experiments performed with Joshua Lederberg at the ylniversity of Wisconsin, where Dr. Zinder was a graduate studient. In 1949, they began, a series of investigations, basedi on the 1946 findiangs. of Lederberg and Edward Tatum-tir.at two strains of the bacillus Escherichia coli could-mate undier certain conditions. Zinder and Lederberg attempted to induce mating in two strains of another species of bacterium, Salmonella typhirnurium. The expected colonies of the new types of cells appeared, but further analysis revealed that they were the product not of sexual mating, but of a hitherto unknown process, now designated "transduction," whereby bacteriophages act as. carriers of genetic material from donor to recipient bacteria. These experiments and the resulting methodology -mnrP-

s ZINDER -2- made transduction-a powerful tool for the study of bacterial genetics and for such apphiediproblems as antibiotic resistance and bacterial classif ication. Further research,enabled Dr. Zinder and his colleagues to-develop techniques for mating 5almone•lla which allow-for the specific differentiation of donor (male) ar,d: recipient (female) bacteria. In 1960, Dr. Zinder and Timothy Loeb, a graduate student in his laboratory, discovered seven new bacterial viruzes specific for E. coli males. •The viruses, which were named fl through f7 (f for fertility factorl, provedito be unique. F1 was found to contain a single strand of DNA as its genetic material, and f2 through f7 proved to be the first known.RNA-containir.g bacteriophages. The discovery of the RNA phages has great importance in studies of fundamental genetic processes because their unusually small size (smaller than the polio virus andiwith half its genetic material) may make it possible to identify each submolecu:le of their genetic code. Also, ~ 0 N O for the manufacture of protein. Also, with the use of phage RNA, .~ many de'tails of protein biosynthes•is, including its.initiatrion and termination,, were worked oult. ~ their rapid rate of multiplicaticn makes them among the most populous orga~nisms in,tthe world. Additional investigations of the MA bacteriophages led Dr. Zinder• and his laboratory group to the first demonstration:, in 196.2, that virus replication in the RNA phage is not dependent on DNA -- that in fact, the RNA phage acts-both as its own•genetic materia:l and as a template for directing protein synthesis. This research provided further evidence that riboniacleic acid' carries the blueprint Dr. Zinder's research on molecu.lar and-physiological genetics

R: REDACTED MATERIAL ' ZINDER -3- continues, with emphasis on genetic recombination of the bacteriophage fl and on the physical mapping of its genome by means of restriction enzymes (agents which cleave genetic material); and nucleotide sequence .analyses of messenger RNA from both prokaryotes and eukaryotes is proceeding. These studies are designed to explore in detail the mechanism of gene action and control thereof in a small finite organism. In addition, they provide tools for the detailed study of the mechanism of action•of these sequence and structure specific " enzymes, which are currently in great use. Born in New York City on November . _ Dr. Zinder received an A. B. degree from Columbia University in 194r7 and` a Ph. D. degree from the University of Wisconsin in 1952, the year he joined The Rockef eller Uriiversity (then known as The Rockefeller Institute forf Medical Research) as an assistant. he was appointed associate.ir. 1956, associate professor in 1958, and prof essor in 19~64. Dr. Zinder served as an American Cancer Society Scholar from 1956 to 1959. He was the recipient of the Eli Lilly Award in Microbiology in 1962 and was honored by the National Academy of Sciences in 1966 with its United States Steel Foundation Award im molecular biology "for the discovery of RNA phages and for the analysis of the mechanisms of their replication." In 1969, he was awarded the Medal of Excellence by Columbia University. The author of numerous scientific papers, including several with Joshua. Lederberg, Dr. Zinder edited the book, RNA Phages (Cold Spring Harbor Press, 1975), and serves as an associate editor of Virology. REDACTED -more-

R: REDACTED MATERIAL r•• . ~. . . ZINDER -4- ~ A former member of the biology advisory committee of the National Science Foundation and of the_board of trustees of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories, he currently serves on the executive committee of the Assembly of Life Sciences of the National Academy of Sciences and on visiting committees in biochemistry, and, virology at Harvard, Yale•, and Princeton Universities. In, addition, to his purely scientific activities, Dr. Zindtr has beern an. active spokesman on the responsibilities of scientists.. In 1973, the National,Cancer Advisory Board of the National Institutes of fdealth appointed him chairman of a• committee to evaluate the National Cancer Institute'-s nine-year-o1d, Virus Cancer Program, which was deducated to explore the possible role of viruses in causing human cancers. The committee'-s findings, known as the Zinder Report,. which criticized the cost of the program and the way int which- its funds, were admir.istered, resulted in the announcement, in 197'4,, by the National Cancer Institute, of a major reorganization of the program.. In July, 197'4, Dr. Zinder and a number of other prominent biologists signed a letter which appeared in both Science and Nature, warning against "indiscriminate application" of new, genetic techniques, such as the transplanting of certain genes from viruses, bacteria, and animal cells into single-celled bacteria, through the use of restriction enzymes. This- letter resu'lted in the Asilomar Conference, held in Ca-lifornia in February, 1975, which was attended by 140- molecular biologists to discuss possible dangers in the new• techniques, and to explore met2Aods• to avert the dangers., and to establish-guidelines for experimentation. REDACTED TSPC^PA1hOr 1Q7;