Editing Sidney Altman

{{Short description|Canadian-American molecular biologist (1939–2022)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{more citations needed|date=October 2009}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name              = Sidney Altman
| image             = Sidney Altman crop.jpg
| image_size        = 220
| caption           = Altman in 2011
| birth_date        = {{birth date|1939|05|07}}
| birth_place       = [[Montreal]], [[Quebec]], Canada
| death_date        = {{death date and age|2022|4|5|1939|5|7}}
| death_place       = [[Rockleigh, New Jersey]], U.S.
| nationality       = Canadian, American (since 1984)
| field             = [[Molecular biology]]
| work_institutions = [[Yale University]]<br>[[Cambridge University]]<br>[[Harvard University]]<br>[[MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology]]
| education         = [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology|MIT]], [[University of Colorado at Boulder]], [[Columbia University]],  [[Arizona State University]]
| known_for         = [[Ribozyme]]s
| prizes            = [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry]] (1989)<br>[[Lomonosov Gold Medal]] (2016)<br>[[Rosenstiel Award]] (1988)
| spouse            = {{marriage|Ann Korner|1972|2018|end=divorced}}
| children          = 2
| doctoral_advisor  = [[Leonard Lerman]]
| doctoral_students = [[Benjamin C. Stark]], [[Robin Reed (biologist)|Robin Reed]]
| thesis_title      = Bacteriophage T<sub>4</sub> DNA replication in the absence and presence of 9-aminoacrine
| thesis_year       = 1967
| thesis_url        = 
}}

'''Sidney Altman''' (May 7, 1939 – April 5, 2022) was a Canadian-American<ref name=NobelChem>{{cite book|editor-last=James|editor-first=Laylin K.|title=Nobel Laureates in Chemistry, 1901–1992|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780841226906|url-access=registration|access-date=September 11, 2011 |year=1994|publisher=American Chemical Society and Chemical Heritage Foundation|isbn=0-8412-2459-5|page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780841226906/page/737 737]}}</ref> [[molecular biology|molecular biologist]], who was the [[Sterling Professor]] of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology and Chemistry at [[Yale University]]. In 1989, he shared the [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry]] with [[Thomas R. Cech]] for their work on the catalytic properties of [[RNA]].

==Family and education==
Altman was born on May 7, 1939, in [[Montreal]], [[Quebec]], Canada.<ref name=r1>[https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1989/altman.html Sidney Altman]. nobelprize.org</ref> His parents, Ray (Arlin), a textile worker, and Victor Altman, a grocer,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.science.ca/scientists/scientistprofile.php?pID=3&pg=3|title=science.ca : Sid Altman|website=www.science.ca|access-date=March 23, 2018}}</ref> were [[Jews|Jewish]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=Jewish Nobel Prize Winners in Chemistry |url=https://www.jinfo.org/Nobels_Chemistry.html |access-date=2023-03-30 |website=www.jinfo.org}}</ref> [[Immigration to Canada|immigrants to Canada]], each coming from [[Eastern Europe]] as a young adult, in the 1920s. Altman's mother was from [[Białystok]] in [[Poland]], and had come to Canada with her sister at the age of eighteen, learning English and working in a textile factory to earn money to bring the rest of their family to Quebec. Altman's father, born in [[Ukraine]], had been a worker on a [[Collective farming|collective farm]] in the Soviet Union. He was sponsored to come to Canada as a farm worker, but later, as a husband and a father of two sons, he supported the family by running a small grocery store in Montreal.<ref name=NobelChem/> Sidney Altman was later to look back on his parents' lives as an illustration of the value of the work ethic: "It was from them I learned that hard work in stable surroundings could yield rewards, even if only in infinitesimally small increments."<ref name=LesPrixNobel>{{Cite web|author=Altman, Sidney |editor=Karl Grandin |title=Sidney Altman Autobiography |url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1989/altman-autobio.html |work=Les Prix Nobel |publisher=The Nobel Foundation |year=1989 |access-date=September 10, 2011}}
</ref>

As Altman reached adulthood, the family's financial situation had become secure enough that he was able to pursue a college education. He went to the United States to study physics at the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]]. While at MIT, he was a member of the ice hockey team.<ref name=NobelChem/> After achieving his bachelor's degree from MIT in 1960, Altman spent 18 months as a graduate student in physics at [[Columbia University]]. Due to personal concerns and the lack of opportunity for beginning graduate students to participate in laboratory work, he left the program without completing the degree.<ref name=NobelChem/> Some months later, he enrolled as a graduate student in biophysics at the [[University of Colorado Health Sciences Center|University of Colorado Medical Center]]. His project was a study of the effects of [[acridine]]s on the replication of [[Enterobacteria phage T4|bacteriophage T4]] DNA. He received his Ph.D. in biophysics from the [[University of Colorado]] in 1967 with thesis advisor [[Leonard Lerman]]; Lerman went in 1967 to [[Vanderbilt University]], where Altman worked briefly as a researcher in molecular biology before leaving for Harvard.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.nndb.com/people/767/000100467/|title=Sidney Altman|website=www.nndb.com|access-date=March 23, 2018}}</ref>

Altman was married to Ann M. Körner (daughter of [[Stephan Körner]]) in 1972. They are the parents of two children, Daniel and Leah.<ref name=LesPrixNobel/> Having lived primarily in the United States since departing Montreal to attend MIT in 1958, Altman became a U.S. citizen in 1984, maintaining dual citizenship as a Canadian citizen as well.<ref name=NobelChem/><ref name=BBY1990>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Newton |first=Carolyn D. |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |title=Altman, Sidney |volume=1990 Britannica Book of the Year |year=1990 |location=Chicago |isbn=0-85229-522-7 |pages=81}}</ref>

==Career==
After receiving his Ph.D., Altman embarked upon the first of two research fellowships. He joined [[Matthew Meselson]]'s laboratory at [[Harvard University]] to study a DNA [[endonuclease]] involved in the replication and recombination of T4 DNA. Later, at the [[Medical Research Council (UK)|MRC]] [[Laboratory of Molecular Biology]] in Cambridge, England, Altman started the work that led to the discovery of [[RNase P]] and the enzymatic properties of the RNA subunit of that ribozyme. [[John Derek Smith|John D. Smith]], as well as several postdoctoral colleagues, provided Altman with very good advice that enabled him to test his ideas. "The discovery of the first radiochemically pure precursor to a [[Transfer RNA|tRNA]] molecule enabled me to get a job as an assistant professor at Yale University in 1971, a difficult time to get any job at all".<ref name=r1/>

Altman's career at Yale followed a standard academic pattern with promotion through the ranks until he became Professor in 1980. He was Chairman of his department from 1983 to 1985 and in 1985 became the Dean of Yale College for four years. On July 1, 1989, he returned to the post of Professor on a full-time basis. His doctoral students include [[Benjamin C. Stark|Ben Stark]].

While at Yale, Altman's Nobel Prize work came with the analysis of the catalytic properties of the [[ribozyme]] [[RNase P]], a [[ribonucleoprotein]] particle consisting of both a structural RNA molecule and one (in [[prokaryotes]]) or more (in [[eukaryotes]]) proteins. Originally, it was believed that, in the bacterial RNase P complex, the protein subunit was responsible for the catalytic activity of the complex, which is involved in the maturation of tRNAs. During experiments in which the complex was reconstituted in test tubes, Altman and his group discovered that the RNA component, in isolation, was sufficient for the observed catalytic activity of the [[enzyme]], indicating that the RNA itself had catalytic properties, which was the discovery that earned him the Nobel Prize.<ref name=BBY1990/> Although the RNase P complex also exists in eukaryotic organisms, his later work revealed that in those organisms, the protein subunits of the complex are essential to the catalytic activity, in contrast to the bacterial RNase P.

==Recognition==
Altman was elected a Fellow of the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]] in 1988<ref name=AAAS>{{cite web|title=Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter A|url=http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterA.pdf|publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences|access-date=April 17, 2011}}</ref> and a member of both the [[National Academy of Sciences]] and the [[American Philosophical Society]] in 1990.<ref name=NAS>{{cite web|title=National Academy of Sciences member page|url=http://www.nasonline.org/member-directory/members/1660.html|publisher=National Academy of Sciences|access-date=March 30, 2021}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=APS Member History |url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Sidney+Altman&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced |access-date=2022-04-14 |website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref>

==Death==
Altman died on April 5, 2022, in Rockleigh, New Jersey, after a long illness.<ref>{{cite web|title=Sidney Altman, pathbreaking scientist|last=Laurans|first=Penny|url=https://news.yale.edu/2022/04/06/sidney-altman-pathbreaking-scientist|publisher=YaleNews|date=April 6, 2022|access-date=April 6, 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/04/08/nobel-prize-sidney-altman-dies/ |title=Sidney Altman, Nobel laureate in chemistry, dies at 82 |newspaper=Washington Post |date=April 8, 2022 |url-access=subscription}}</ref>

==Bibliography==
*{{Cite journal|pmid=17700860 |last=Altman |first=Sidney |publication-date=Sep 2007 |year=2007 |title=A view of RNase P. |volume=3 |issue=9 |periodical=Mol Biosyst |pages=604–7 |doi=10.1039/b707850c}}
*{{Cite journal|pmid=2479591 |last1=Altman |first1=S |last2=Baer |first2=M F |last3=Bartkiewicz |first3=M |last4=Gold |first4=H |publication-date=October 15, 1989 |year=1989 |title=Catalysis by the RNA subunit of RNase P—a minireview. |volume=82 |issue=1 |periodical=Gene |pages=63–4 |doi=10.1016/0378-1119(89)90030-9 |last5=Guerrier-Takada |first5=C |last6=Kirsebom |first6=LA |last7=Lumelsky |first7=N |last8=Peck |first8=K}}

==See also==
* [[History of RNA biology]]
* [[List of RNA biologists]]
* [[List of Jewish Nobel laureates]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1989/altman-lecture.html Sidney Altman Nobel Lecture: Enzymatic Cleavage of RNA by RNA]
*[http://pubget.com/profile/author/altman%20s Altman S] Author Profile Page on Pubget
*[http://conversations.berkeley.edu/content/sidney-altman Sidney Altman U.C. Berkeley Conversations with History] University of California at Berkeley Interview
*[http://hdl.handle.net/10079/fa/mssa.ms.1680 Sidney Altman Papers (MS 1680).] Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library.
*{{Nobelprize}}
{{Nobel Prize in Chemistry Laureates 1976-2000}}
{{1989 Nobel Prize winners}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Altman, Sidney}}
[[Category:1939 births]]
[[Category:2022 deaths]]
[[Category:Nobel laureates in Chemistry]]
[[Category:American Nobel laureates]]
[[Category:Canadian Nobel laureates]]
[[Category:American molecular biologists]]
[[Category:American biophysicists]]
[[Category:American people of Polish-Jewish descent]]
[[Category:American people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent]]
[[Category:Canadian biologists]]
[[Category:Canadian biophysicists]]
[[Category:Canadian expatriate academics in the United States]]
[[Category:Jewish Canadian scientists]]
[[Category:Canadian people of Polish-Jewish descent]]
[[Category:Canadian people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent]]
[[Category:Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni]]
[[Category:Harvard University staff]]
[[Category:Jewish American scientists]]
[[Category:Jewish Nobel laureates]]
[[Category:Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science alumni]]
[[Category:Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:Canadian molecular biologists]]
[[Category:Academics from Montreal]]
[[Category:Scientists from Montreal]]
[[Category:University of Colorado alumni]]
[[Category:Yale Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology faculty]]
[[Category:Yale Sterling Professors]]
[[Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences]]
[[Category:Anglophone Quebec people]]
[[Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society]]