| Citation | David Baltimore has worked principally in three areas of molecular biology, (a) the biochemistry of poliovirus, (b) the biochemistry of cancer-inducing viruses and (c) the immune system. His major theme is to define the biochemical events underlying changes in gene expression and gene structure in the mammalian cell.
The work on poliovirus, the simplest of the three systems, has led to a detailed understanding of its replication and an understanding of its genetics. His contributions to the more complicated cancer-inducing viruses have been made with the Abelson mouse leukaemia virus, with the object of determining how the virus oncogene transforms normal cells to tumour cells. In the third area of his work, the immune system, he has foccussed [sic] his effort on the biochemical changes occurring during various stages in the development of antibody producing cells.
His work on virus replication led to discovery of reverse transcriptase and to the award of the Nobel Prize, shared with H. Temin and R. Dulbecco, in 1975. |