Sidney Altman, Ph.D.

1989 Nobel Prize in Chemistry

Dr. Altman is a molecular biologist who received the 1989 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his discovery that certain RNAs, now known as ribozymes, showed enzymatic activity. The old belief was that enzymatic activity – the triggering and acceleration of vital chemical reactions within living cells – was the exclusive domain of protein molecules. Dr. Altman’s revolutionary discovery was that RNA, traditionally thought to be simply a passive carrier of genetic codes, could also take on active enzymatic functions. This knowledge opened up new fields of scientific research and biotechnology and caused scientists to rethink old theories of how cells function.