Sidney Altman

Sidney Altman (May 7, 1939 – April 5, 2022) was a Canadian-American molecular biologist.Sidney Altman. Nobel Foundation He was a Professor of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology and Chemistry at Yale University. In 1989 he shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Thomas Cech for their work on the catalytic properties of RNA. Altman was of Jewish descent.

Works
Altman's Nobel Prize work came with the analysis of the catalytic properties of the ribozyme RNase P.RNase P means "ribonuclease particle", which is a type of enzyme built of an RNA part and a protein part. RNase P is a ribonucleoprotein particle, part RNA and part protein. Originally it was thought that, in the bacterial RNase P complex, the protein subunit was responsible for the catalytic activity of the complex.

During experiments in which the complex was taken apart and put together in test tubes, Altman and his group discovered a remarkable thing.  The RNA component, in isolation, was enough for the observed catalytic activity of the enzyme. This was remarkable because, previously, it was thought that only enzymes could catalyse reactions in living cells. Altman's research showed that RNA itself had catalytic properties. This was the discovery that earned him the Nobel prize.

Although the RNase P complex also exists in eukaryotic organisms, Altman's later work showed that in eukaryotes the protein subunits are essential to the catalytic activity, in contrast to the bacterial RNase P.

Death
Altman died on April 5, 2022 in Rockleigh, New Jersey after a long illness at the age of 82.

 References 

Other websites
Sidney Altman Nobel Lecture: Enzymatic cleavage of RNA by RNA
Altman S Author Profile Page on Pubget

Category:1939 births
Category:2022 deaths
Category:American molecular biologists
Category:American Nobel Prize winners
Category:Canadian academics
Category:Canadian Jews
Category:Canadian Nobel Prize winners
Category:Canadian biologists
Category:Columbia University alumni
Category:Jewish American academics
Category:Jewish American scientists
Category:Jewish Nobel Prize winners
Category:Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni
Category:Naturalized citizens of the United States
Category:People from Montreal
Category:Nobel Prize in Chemistry winners