Herbert Wayne "Herb" Boyer (born July 10, 1936) is an American biotechnologist, researcher and entrepreneur in biotechnology. Along with Stanley N. Cohen and

Paul Berg Paul Berg (born June 30, 1926) is an American biochemist and professor emeritus at Stanford University. He was the recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1980, along with Walter Gilbert and Frederick Sanger. The award recognized their con ...

he discovered a method to coax bacteria into producing foreign proteins, thereby jump-starting the field of genetic engineering. By 1969, he performed studies on a couple of restriction enzymes of the E.coli bacterium with especially useful properties. He is recipient of the 1990

National Medal of Science The National Medal of Science is an honor bestowed by the President of the United States to individuals in science and engineering who have made important contributions to the advancement of knowledge in the fields of behavioral and social scienc ...

, co-recipient of the 1996

Lemelson–MIT Prize The Lemelson-MIT Program awards several prizes yearly to inventors in the United States. The largest is the Lemelson–MIT Prize which was endowed in 1994 by Jerome H. Lemelson, funded by the Lemelson Foundation, and is administered through the Sc ...

, and a co-founder of Genentech. He was professor at the

University of California, San Francisco The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is a public land-grant research university in San Francisco, California. It is part of the University of California system and is dedicated entirely to health science and life science. It con ...

(UCSF) and later served as vice president of Genentech from 1976 until his retirement in 1991.

Life and career

Herbert Boyer was born in 1936 in

Derry, Pennsylvania :''There are also four Derry Townships in Pennsylvania.'' Derry is a borough in Westmoreland County in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, east of Pittsburgh. The Borough of Derry, consisting of the town area, should not be confused with Derry T ...

. He received his

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

in biology and chemistry from

Saint Vincent College Saint Vincent College is a private Benedictine college in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1846 by Boniface Wimmer, a monk from Bavaria, it is operated by the Benedictine monks of Saint Vincent Archabbey, the first Benedictine monastery in the ...

Latrobe, Pennsylvania Latrobe is a city in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, in the United States and part of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area. The city population was 8,338 as of the 2010 census (9,265 in 1990). It is located near Pennsylvania's scenic Chestnut Ri ...

, in 1958. He married his wife Grace the following year. He received his PhD at the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the univers ...

in 1963 and participated as an activist in the

civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life o ...

movement. He spent three years in post-graduate work at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

in the laboratories of Professors Edward Adelberg and Bruce Carlton, then became an assistant professor at the

and a professor of biochemistry from 1976 to 1991, where he discovered that genes from bacteria could be combined with genes from eukaryotes. In 1977, Boyer's laboratory and collaborators

Keiichi Itakura is an organic chemist and a Professor in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology at the Beckman Research Institute at City of Hope National Medical Center. Biography Itakura was born in Tokyo, Japan on February 18, 1942. He obtained a Ph ...

and Arthur Riggs at

City of Hope National Medical Center City of Hope is a private, not-for-profit clinical research center, hospital and graduate school located in Duarte, California, United States. The center's main campus resides on of land adjacent to the boundaries of Duarte and Irwindale, with ...

described the first-ever synthesis and expression of a peptide-coding gene. In August 1978, he produced synthetic insulin using his new transgenic

genetically modified bacteria Genetically modified bacteria were the first organisms to be modified in the laboratory, due to their simple genetics. These organisms are now used for several purposes, and are particularly important in producing large amounts of pure human prot ...

, followed in 1979 by a

growth hormone Growth hormone (GH) or somatotropin, also known as human growth hormone (hGH or HGH) in its human form, is a peptide hormone that stimulates growth, cell reproduction, and cell regeneration in humans and other animals. It is thus important in h ...

. In 1976, Boyer founded Genentech with

venture capitalist Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth potential or which ha ...

Robert A. Swanson Robert "Bob" Swanson (1947–1999) was an American venture capitalist who cofounded the biotechnology giant Genentech in 1976 with Herbert Boyer. Genentech is a pioneer in the field, and it remains one of the leading biotechnology companies in ...

. Genentech's approach to the first synthesis of insulin won out over

Walter Gilbert Walter Gilbert (born March 21, 1932) is an American biochemist, physicist, molecular biology pioneer, and Nobel laureate. Education and early life Walter Gilbert was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on March 21, 1932, the son of Emma (Cohen), a c ...

's approach at

Biogen Biogen Inc. is an American multinational biotechnology company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, specializing in the discovery, development, and delivery of therapies for the treatment of neurological diseases to patients worldwide. History ...

which used whole

gene In biology, the word gene (from , ; "... Wilhelm Johannsen coined the word gene to describe the Mendelian units of heredity..." meaning ''generation'' or ''birth'' or ''gender'') can have several different meanings. The Mendelian gene is a b ...

s from natural sources. Boyer built his gene from its individual

nucleotide Nucleotides are organic molecules consisting of a nucleoside and a phosphate. They serve as monomeric units of the nucleic acid polymers – deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA), both of which are essential biomolecule ...

s. In 1990, Boyer and his wife Grace gave the single largest donation ($10,000,000) bestowed on the Yale School of Medicine by an individual. The Boyer Center for Molecular Medicine was named after the Boyer family in 1991. At the Class of 2007 Commencement, St. Vincent College announced that they had renamed the School of Natural Science, Mathematics, and Computing the Herbert W. Boyer School. Among his professional activities, Boyer is on the board of directors of

Scripps Research Scripps Research, previously known as The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI), is a nonprofit American medical research facility that focuses on research and education in the biomedical sciences. Headquartered in San Diego, California, the institu ...

Awards

*1980 the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research *1981 the Golden Plate Award of the

American Academy of Achievement The American Academy of Achievement, colloquially known as the Academy of Achievement, is a non-profit educational organization that recognizes some of the highest achieving individuals in diverse fields and gives them the opportunity to meet ...

*1982 the

Industrial Research Institute Innovation Research Interchange (IRI) is a division of the National Association of Manufacturers, a nonprofit association based in Washington, D. C., United States. IRI was founded as a private non-profit in 1938 and merged with the NAM in 2022. ...

(IRI) Achievement Award *1989 the

National Medal of Technology The National Medal of Technology and Innovation (formerly the National Medal of Technology) is an honor granted by the President of the United States to American inventors and innovators who have made significant contributions to the development ...

*1990 the

from President George H. W. Bush *1993 Helmut Horten Research Award *2000

Biotechnology Heritage Award The Biotechnology Heritage Award recognizes individuals who have made significant contributions to the development of biotechnology through discovery, innovation, and public understanding. It is presented annually at the Biotechnology Innovation ...

with

, from the

Biotechnology Industry Organization The Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) is the largest advocacy association in the world representing the biotechnology industry. It was founded in 1993 as the Biotechnology Industry Organization, and changed its name to the Biotechnology ...

(BIO) and the

Chemical Heritage Foundation The Science History Institute is an institution that preserves and promotes understanding of the history of science. Located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, it includes a library, museum, archive, research center and conference center. It was fo ...

*2004

Albany Medical Center Prize The Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research is the United States' second highest value prize in medicine and biomedical research, awarded by the Albany Medical Center. Among prizes for medicine worldwide, the Albany Medical ...

(shared with Stanley N. Cohen) *2004 Shaw Prize in Life Science and Medicine *2005 Winthrop-Sears Medal *2007

Perkin Medal The Perkin Medal is an award given annually by the Society of Chemical Industry (American Section) to a scientist residing in America for an "innovation in applied chemistry resulting in outstanding commercial development." It is considered the ...

*200
CSHL Double Helix Medal Honoree

References

*''They Made America'' by Harold Evans (Little Brown, 2004) and in the subsequent WGBH television series. {{DEFAULTSORT:Boyer, Herbert 1936 births 21st-century American biologists American company founders American civil rights activists American biotechnologists Businesspeople in the pharmaceutical industry Genentech people History of biotechnology History of genetics Lemelson–MIT Prize Living people Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences National Medal of Science laureates National Medal of Technology recipients People from Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania Recipients of the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research Saint Vincent College alumni University of California, San Francisco faculty University of Pittsburgh alumni