Ronald Davis
RONALD DAVIS, professor of biochemistry and of genetics, has won the 2011 Genetics Prize presented by the Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation.
Davis will receive the prize — a gold medal and unrestricted $500,000 cash award — on Oct. 13 in Montreal during the annual meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics. He will also deliver a lecture at the conference.
Established in 2001, the award is presented to a leading scientist in recognition of groundbreaking contributions to any realm of genetics research. Davis, a pioneer in innovative biotechnologies, was chosen for his work in the development and practical application of recombinant DNA and genomic methods to biological organisms.
Davis was one of the first researchers to discover that proteins known as restriction endonucleases function as highly selective molecular scissors: Not only do they cut DNA at specific sequences, most also leave dangling complementary, single-stranded ends ripe for a matching partner. The finding, published in 1972, revolutionized the then-nascent field of recombinant DNA by allowing scientists to “mix and match” similarly cut DNA fragments.
Read the Medical School press release.
