Leonard Solomon Lerman (June 27, 1925 – September 19, 2012) was an American scientist most noted for his work on DNA.

Life and career

Lerman was born and raised in Pittsburgh, the son of Freamah and Meyer Lerman, Jewish immigrants from Ukraine. His father was a department store buyer. Lerman began attending the Carnegie Institute of Technology before graduating from high school and received his BS in five semesters. As a graduate student with

Linus Pauling Linus Carl Pauling (; February 28, 1901August 19, 1994) was an American chemist, biochemist, chemical engineer, peace activist, author, and educator. He published more than 1,200 papers and books, of which about 850 dealt with scientific top ...

at the California Institute of Technology, Lerman discovered that

antibodies An antibody (Ab), also known as an immunoglobulin (Ig), is a large, Y-shaped protein used by the immune system to identify and neutralize foreign objects such as pathogenic bacteria and viruses. The antibody recognizes a unique molecule of the ...

have two binding sites. Later, perhaps his most important discovery was that certain molecules bind to DNA by

intercalation Intercalation may refer to: * Intercalation (chemistry), insertion of a molecule (or ion) into layered solids such as graphite *Intercalation (timekeeping), insertion of a leap day, week or month into some calendar years to make the calendar foll ...

. This discovery has shaped much of science's understanding about how drugs and

mutagen In genetics, a mutagen is a physical or chemical agent that permanently changes nucleic acid, genetic material, usually DNA, in an organism and thus increases the frequency of mutations above the natural background level. As many mutations can ca ...

s interact with DNA. Later, during a sabbatical at the University of Cambridge, Lerman had a chance to work with later Nobel prize winners Sydney Brenner and

Francis Crick Francis Harry Compton Crick (8 June 1916 – 28 July 2004) was an English molecular biologist, biophysicist, and neuroscientist. He, James Watson, Rosalind Franklin, and Maurice Wilkins played crucial roles in deciphering the helical struc ...

.Leonard Lerman, former senior lecturer at MIT, dies at 87.
MIT News, September 28, 2012. Lerman led a productive research program at Vanderbilt University in

Nashville Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and the ...

, the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver and SUNY Albany, the State University of New York at Albany. Lerman's lab crew included at least one Nobel prize winner, Sidney Altman, and another,

Tom Maniatis Tom Maniatis (born May 8, 1943), is an American professor of molecular and cellular biology. He is a professor at Columbia University, and serves as the Scientific Director and CEO of the New York Genome Center. Education Maniatis received B.A ...

, who also became one of the leading molecular biologists of his time. Lerman's last major effort, begun with Stuart Fischer at SUNY, was the invention of

denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis Temperature gradient gel electrophoresis (TGGE) and denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) are forms of electrophoresis which use either a temperature or chemical gradient to denature the sample as it moves across an acrylamide gel. TGGE a ...

(DGGE), a technique used to separate DNA molecules. DGGE is widely used by scientists who wish to ascertain biodiversity in microbial communities. Dr. Lerman was also a senior member of one of the first biotechnology companies, the

Genetics Institute :''This article is primarily about Genetics Institute prior to its 1996 acquisition by Wyeth. For that successor company, see Wyeth.'' Genetics Institute, Inc. was a biotechnology research and development company founded by Thomas Maniatis and Mar ...

, co-founded by one of his students,

. Dr. Lerman was a member of the National Academy of Sciences, USA.

References

External links

*
Sidney Altman's Nobel Prize Autobiography
with a description of the time he spent working with Leonard Lerman in Colorado {{DEFAULTSORT:Lerman, Leonard 1925 births American molecular biologists American geneticists California Institute of Technology alumni 2012 deaths Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences