Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1959-10-15
2Americans
Receive Nobel
Medical Prize
Ochoo, Kornberg
Honored for Their
Work in Heredity

is (AP).-Two American SCI
entists were awarded this years
Nobel Prize in medicine for
pioneer research into the basic
mechanisms Of heredity.
They are DR.. Severe Ochoa Of
the New York University Col
lege of Medicine and DR.. Ar
thur Kornberg Of Stanford
University, California.
DR.. Kornberg was a COM
handing officer of the United
States Public Health Service in
1912 and advanced through the
grades to medical director in
1851. In that period he was a
staff member of National Insti-
tutes of Health at Bethesda.
Md, serving successfully in the
nutrition section of the division
of physiology and chief Of the
section of engines and metab-
olism.
The decision was taken by
the Swedish Royal Caroline In
stitute of Medicine and Physi-
ology this afternoon.
The reward signaled an ex-
plosive biochemical advance in
the basic scientific level Of
heredity.
Prize Worth S42,6O6
The prize this year is worth
220,700 Swedish crowns ($42.-
606). The money comes from
trusts set up under the will Of
Alfred Nobel, Swedish inventor
of dynamite. The prizes first
were awarded in 1901 and are
given for chemistry, physics,
literature, as well as in the field
of medicine and physiology.
IN addition there is the Nobel
Peace Prize.
Americans also won the prize
for medicine last year. They
were George Beadle, Edward
Tatum and Joshua Lederberg,
for their work in geneticS.
The work of DR.. Ochoa and
DR.. Kornberg centered on the
chemical structural pattern of
heredity, notably the key sub
stances of DINA (desoxyribonu-
cleic acid) and RNA (ribonu-
cleic acid.
The Caroline Institute said
in its official citation that the
two American scientists were
awarded the prize "for their
discoveries Of the mechanisms
in the biological Synthesis Of
ribonucleic acid and desoxy-
ribonucleic acid"
DR.. Ochoa, 81, Is a native Of
Luarca, Spain.
DR.. Kornberg, Al, was born
in Brooklyn, N. Y.
Outstanding BiOchemists
The Caroline Institute, which
gave half the prize to each man,
said it was honoring two of
the best biochemistS Of the pres
ent time in their most active
age"
In reporting findings in 1855,
DR.. Ochoa, head of biochemiStry
at New York University'S Col
lege of Medicine and head Of a
team of experimenters in that
school, said the process involves
joining small molecules into
chains, like beads on a string.
His group was believed to be the
first to put them together in a
chain outside a living organism.
DR.. Ochoa repeatedly took
substances from living sewage
cells to build the molecules. The
bacteria substances are general
ly called engines and can Ma
cilitate complex chemical re-
actions. DINA is a main COM
.ponent Of chromosomes and
genes, the carriers of hereditary
traits.
Findings Told in 1857
In 1857, DIR. Kornberg, at that
time associated with Washing
ton University in st. Louis, re-
ported on his team findings in
the same field at the annual
meeting in Chicago of the Fed
Grafton of American Societies
for Experimental Biology.
He reported that the DINA in
the test-tube appeared to be the
same as that found in all living
things.
DR.. Ochoa studied first at
Malaga, Spain. He received
See NOBEL, Page Ais