Wanderings of a DNA enzymologist: from DNA polymerase to viral latency.
I am a member of what has been called, perhaps too grandiosely, "The Greatest Generation." I grew up during the Great Depression and served in the U.S. Army during World War II. Because of my military service and the benefits of the GI Bill, I was able to attend college and, later, graduate school. Early in my graduate studies, I became fascinated with enzymes and the biochemical reactions that they catalyze. This fascination has never left me during the 50 years I have been a "DNA enzymologist." I was fortunate to have had as a mentor Arthur Kornberg, one of the great biochemists of the twentieth century, and a splendid group of postdocs and graduate students. I have studied DNA polymerases, DNA nucleases, DNA ligases, and DNA recombinases, enzymes that are critical to our understanding of DNA replication, repair, and recombination. Most recently, I have been studying herpes virus replication and inadvertently wandered into an entirely new area-viral latency.
Lehman
I Robert
IR
Department of Biochemistry, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA. blehman@cmgm.stanford.edu
D011088:DNA Ligases / Q000378:metabolism; D004261:DNA Replication; D004259:DNA-Directed DNA Polymerase; D005090:Exodeoxyribonucleases / Q000378:metabolism; D018259:Herpesvirus 1, Human / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D011938:Rec A Recombinases / Q000378:metabolism; D017735:Virus Latency; D014779:Virus Replication
D011938:Rec A Recombinases; D004259:DNA-Directed DNA Polymerase; D005090:Exodeoxyribonucleases; D011088:DNA Ligases