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George Wells Beadle




George Wells Beadle ( October 22 , 1903June 9 , 1989 ) was an American Scientist in the field of Genetics . He shared half of the 1958 Nobel Prize In Physiology Or Medicine with Edward Lawrie Tatum for their discovery that Gene s act by regulating biochemical events within the cell. The other half of that year's award went to Joshua Lederberg .

Beadle and Tatum's key experiments involved exposing the bread Mold '' Neurospora Crassa '' to X-ray s, causing Mutation s. In a series of experiments, they showed that these mutations caused changes in specific Enzyme s involved in Metabolic Pathway s. These experiments led them to propose a direct link between genes and enzymatic reactions, known as the "one gene, one enzyme" hypothesis.

Beadle was born in Wahoo, Nebraska . He received his Bachelor of Science degree from the University Of Nebraska in 1928 . He received his Ph.D. from Cornell University in 1931 . Beadle worked with 1933 Nobel Prize winner Thomas Hunt Morgan at the California Institute Of Technology . He was a professor at Harvard University and Caltech. He also served as president of the University Of Chicago from 1961-1968. He published his book ''The Language of Life'' in 1966 .

REFERENCES

  • ''Nobel Lectures, Physiology or Medicine 1942-1962'', Elsevier Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 1964



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