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RefNoEC/1987/43
Previous numbersCert XXII, 93
LevelItem
TitleGilbert, Walter: certificate of election to the Royal Society
Date1986
DescriptionCertificate of Candidate for Election to Foreign Membership. Citation typed
CitationWalter Gilbert has made many major discoveries in molecular biology.
1.In work on the biosynthesis of proteins, he discovered polyribosomes and demonstrated that the growing polypeptide chain is terminated at the carboxy end in a transfer RNA molecule. This showed that the growing chain is passed from one transfer RNA molecule to the next transfer RNA molecule as each new amino acid is added.
2.He isolated the repressor for the lactose operon and showed that it was a protein, functioning by binding to specific DNA molecules (the operators) at the initiation point for transcription.
3.He proposed the rolling circle model for DNA replication.
4.He isolated and sequenced the lac operator, one of the first DNA recognition sites to be sequenced.
5.He devised the chemical methylation methods to probe the interaction of protein with DNA.
6.He devised DNA sequencing method which bears his name (Maxam-Gilbert)
7.He demonstrated that a eukaryotic protein (pro-insulin) can be made in bacteria.
8.He proposed the intron-exon structure of genes and has advanced theories on their evolution.
These discoveries led to his Nobel Prize, shared with F. Sanger and P. Berg, in 1980.
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