Arber, Werner (1929-…), a Swiss microbiologist, shared the 1978 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine with the American scientists Daniel Nathans and Hamilton Smith for their discoveries in molecular genetics. See Nathans, Daniel ; Smith, Hamilton Othanel .
The three prizewinners found an enzyme (a substance that speeds up biochemical reactions) that splits up molecules of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), the substance of which most genes are made and that is chiefly responsible for the transmission of inherited characteristics. Their enzyme split DNA into pieces that were small enough to study individually, but large enough to retain the particular genetic characteristics of each strand. This process made it possible to study the structure of the DNA more closely and to investigate the genetic information encoded on each part of the strands. See Cell .
Arber was born on June 3, 1929, in Granichen, Switzerland. In 1953, he graduated from the Swiss Polytechnical School in Zurich with a degree in natural sciences. He was given a trainee assistant post in electron microscopy at the biophysics laboratory at the University of Geneva. In 1958, he gained a Ph.D. and then spent two years at the California Institute of Technology in the United States. In 1960, he returned to Geneva, where he served for 10 years on the faculty of science at the University of Geneva. In 1970, he was appointed professor of microbiology at the University of Basel.
