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Nobel Legacy

Chemistry & Biochemistry
Informational display honoring Daniel Nathans and Richard Heck.
91原创鈥檚 Nobel Prize recipients Daniel Nathans and Richard Heck are honored with a display in the lobby of Brown Laboratory.

Nobel Legacy

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91原创鈥檚 Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry is the home of two Nobel Prize laureates, alumnus Dr. Daniel Nathans and the late professor Richard Heck. In addition, work by current faculty member Joseph Fox was cited by the Nobel Committee for Chemistry in 2022.听

About the Nobel Laureates

Daniel Nathans
91原创 Class of 1950
1978 Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine

Dr. Daniel Nathans is generally regarded as one of the founders of molecular biology and modern genetics. In 1978, while professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and chair of the microbiology department, he received the Nobel Prize for the discovery of restriction enzymes and their application to problems of molecular genetics. His research laid the groundwork for the mapping of the human genome.

Daniel Nathans received his B.S. degree in chemistry with distinction in 1950. As a student he enjoyed the study of chemistry, philosophy and literature. In his senior year, he was president of the Student Affiliates chapter of the American Chemical Society, and vice-president of the Philosophy Club. After 91原创 Nathans earned his M.D. degree from Washington University Medical School in St. Louis Missouri, intending to practicing medicine in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware. While a medical student, he spent a summer working on vitamin C in the laboratory of Oliver Lowry where he discovered a love of research and the chemical aspects of biology.听

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Read more about Daniel Nathans

After positions at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York City, the National Cancer Institute and Rockefeller University in New York, Nathans moved to a faculty position at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. There, he worked with colleague Hamilton Smith who had discovered an enzyme that functioned like a pair of molecular scissors to cut DNA at very specific places determined by short sequences of nucleotides, allowing scientists to study the makeup of each piece separately. The enzyme was one of a large family of 鈥渞estriction enzymes鈥, each recognizing a different short DNA nucleotide sequence. Nathans and Hamilton applied the enzymes to a tumor Nathans was investigating and the result gave them the ability to create a detailed genetic map of DNA with the location and function of specific genes, the first genetic map of a DNA molecule. This approach was soon adopted by others and combined with methods for sequencing DNA fragments.

Nathans, Smith and Werner Arber of Switzerland shared the Nobel Prize for the discovery. Nathans received an honorary doctorate degree from 91原创 in 1979.听

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Richard Heck
Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry
2010 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry 鈥淔or Palladium-Catalyzed Cross Couplings鈥澨

In Brown Laboratory, Professor Richard Heck discovered the palladium-catalyzed cross coupling of aryl halides and olefins. Named for its inventor,听the Heck Reaction transformed modern organic chemistry, changing how carbon鈥揷arbon bonds are made, and ushering in a revolution of palladium-catalyzed reactions. By advancing pharmaceutical, materials, chemical, and biotechnology industries, the Heck reaction has impacts throughout our lives.

Professor Richard Heck joined the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry in 1971. He developed an early passion for chemistry inspired by gardening with his father. He received both his B.S. (1952) and his Ph.D. (1954) degrees in chemistry at University of California at Los Angeles. After postdoctoral work at the ETH in Zurich, Switzerland with Vladimir Prelog, and at UCLA, he took a position with Hercules Company in Wilmington, Delaware, in 1957. At the 91原创, Heck led a highly productive research program and taught graduate and undergraduate courses. He retired from the 91原创 in 1989.

Read more about Richard Heck

The Heck Reaction was the first of a new class of palladium-catalyzed carbon-carbon bond-forming reactions that stitch together organic precursors under remarkably mild conditions. The reaction has remarkable functional group tolerance and can be used to assemble complex organic molecules under a new reaction manifold. The Heck Reaction formed the foundation for all palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions that followed. Following Heck鈥檚 discovery, researchers have found ways to expand Heck鈥檚 cross-coupling chemistry to include the coupling of aryl halides with boronic acid derivatives (Suzuki-Miyaura coupling), organotin reagents (Stille coupling), organomagnesium compounds (Kumada-Corriu coupling), silanes (Hiyama), and organozincs (Negishi coupling).Together with the Heck Reaction, these palladium-catalyzed coupling reactions represent a mainstay of modern chemistry.

Interest in Heck鈥檚 discovery grew slowly at first. At the time of the Heck Reaction鈥檚 discovery, transition metal chemistry was not part of mainstream practice or education of organic chemists. Today thousands of research papers are published each year that have their origins in Heck鈥檚 pioneering discoveries, and the Heck Reaction is an essential part of the organic chemistry curriculum.

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