Editing David Baltimore (section)

=== Nobel Prize ===
In 1975, at the age of 37, he shared the Nobel Prize for [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine|Physiology or Medicine]] with [[Howard Martin Temin|Howard Temin]] and [[Renato Dulbecco]].<ref name=":2" /> The citation reads, "for their discoveries concerning the interaction between tumor viruses and the genetic material of the cell."<ref name="NobelPrize1975">{{cite press release|date=October 1975|title=Physiology or Medicine 1975 – Press Release|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1975/press.html|access-date=November 6, 2015}}</ref> At the time, Baltimore's greatest contribution to virology was his discovery of [[reverse transcriptase]] (Rtase or RT) which is essential for the reproduction of [[retrovirus]]es such as [[HIV]] and was discovered independently, and at about the same time, by Satoshi Mizutani and Temin.<ref name="OralHistoryCHF" />

After winning the Nobel Prize, Baltimore reorganized his laboratory, refocusing on immunology and virology, with [[immunoglobulin]] gene expression as a major area of interest. He tackled new problems such as the pathogenesis of [[Abelson murine leukemia virus]] (AMuLV), lymphocyte differentiation and related topic in immunology. In 1980, his group isolated the oncogene in AMuLV and showed it was a member of a new class of protein kinases that used the amino acid tyrosine as a phosphoacceptor.<ref name="Witte">{{cite journal | vauthors = Witte ON, Dasgupta A, Baltimore D | title = Abelson murine leukaemia virus protein is phosphorylated in vitro to form phosphotyrosine | journal = Nature | volume = 283 | issue = 5750 | pages = 826–31 | date = February 1980 | pmid = 6244493 | doi = 10.1038/283826a0 | s2cid = 4239008 | bibcode = 1980Natur.283..826W }}</ref> This type of enzymatic activity was also discovered by [[Anthony R. Hunter|Tony Hunter]], who has done extensive work in the area. He also continued to pursue fundamental questions in RNA viruses and in 1981, Baltimore and [[Vincent Racaniello]], a post-doctoral fellow in his laboratory, used [[recombinant DNA]] technology to generate a [[plasmid]] encoding the genome of [[poliovirus]], an animal RNA virus.<ref name="NobelLecture" /> The plasmid DNA was introduced into cultured mammalian cells and infectious poliovirus was produced. The infectious clone, DNA encoding the genome of a virus, is a standard tool used today in virology.