Alfred Day HersheyBorn 4 Dec 1908; died 22 May 1997 at age 88. American biologist who, along with Max Delbrück and Salvador Luria, won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1969. The prize was given for research done on bacteriophages (viruses that infect bacteria). This was the famous “blender experiment”(1956). Hershey used an isotope- labeled phage to to infect a bacterial colony and begin to inject their genetic material into the host cells. Then he whirred them in a Waring Blendor to tear the phage particles from the bacterial walls without rupturing the bacteria. Upon examining the bacteria, Hershey found that only phage DNA, but no detectable protein, had been inserted into them. This showed that the DNA was sufficient to transfer to the bacteria all the genetic information needed to produce more phage. |
