- Herbert Boyer
Infobox Person
image_size = 150px
name = Herbert W. Boyer
caption = Herbert W. Boyer
birth_date = 1936
birth_place =
occupation = Biochemist
spouse =Herbert W. Boyer (born 1936) is a recipient of the 1990
National Medal of Science , and co-recipient of the 1996Lemelson-MIT Prize and a co-founder ofGenentech .Boyer received his
bachelor's degree in biology and chemistry fromSaint Vincent College in the Pittsburgh suburb ofLatrobe, Pennsylvania in 1958. He married his wife Grace the following year. He received hisPhD at theUniversity of Pittsburgh in 1963 and participated as an activist in thecivil rights movement. He spent three years in post-graduate work atYale University in the laboratories of Professors Edward Adelberg and Bruce Carlton, then became an assistant professor at theUniversity of California, San Francisco , where he discovered that genes from bacteria could be combined with genes from higher organisms. In August 1978, he produced the first synthetic insulin using his newtransgenic bacteria , followed in 1979 by agrowth hormone .Boyer with
Robert A. Swanson foundedGenentech . Genentech's approach to the first synthesis ofinsulin won out over Wally Gilbert's approach atBiogen which usedgene s from natural sources. Boyer created his gene "de novo" from its individualnucleotides .In 1990, Boyer and his wife gave the single largest donation bestowed on the Yale School of Medicine by an individual. The Boyer Center for Molecular Medicine was named after the Boyer family in 1991. [ [http://info.med.yale.edu/library/exhibits/yalemed3/1991-2001.html Yale and Medicine, 1951-2001: 1991-2001 ] ]
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. [ [http://www.stvincent.edu/news_stories/news_stories/saint-vincent-college-announces-naming-of-the-herbert-w_-boyer-school-of-natural-sciences Saint Vincent College announces naming of the Herbert W. Boyer School of Natural Sciences - Saint Vincent College ] ]
References
"They Made America" by Harold Evans (Little Brown, 2004) and in the subsequent WGBH television series.
Persondata
NAME=Herbert W. Boyer
ALTERNATIVE NAMES= Herb Boyer
SHORT DESCRIPTION=
DATE OF BIRTH= 1936
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DATE OF DEATH=
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