Charles 'Charley' M. Steinberg (1932 September 17, 1999) was an immunobiologist and permanent member of the

Basel Institute for Immunology The Basel Institute for Immunology (BII) was founded in 1969 as a basic research institute in immunology located at 487 Grenzacherstrasse, Basel, Switzerland on the Rhine River down the street from the main Hoffmann-La Roche campus near the Swiss-G ...

. He was a former student of

Max Delbrück Max Ludwig Henning Delbrück (; September 4, 1906 – March 9, 1981) was a German–American biophysicist who participated in launching the molecular biology research program in the late 1930s. He stimulated physical science, physical scientist ...

. Notably he hosted

Richard Feynman Richard Phillips Feynman (; May 11, 1918 – February 15, 1988) was an American theoretical physicist, known for his work in the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics, the theory of quantum electrodynamics, the physics of the superflu ...

Caltech The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...

when Feynman studied

molecular biology Molecular biology is the branch of biology that seeks to understand the molecular basis of biological activity in and between cells, including biomolecular synthesis, modification, mechanisms, and interactions. The study of chemical and physi ...

, leading Feynman to remark that Charlie was “...the smartest guy I know”. He was instrumental in the discovery of

V(D)J recombination V(D)J recombination is the mechanism of somatic recombination that occurs only in developing lymphocytes during the early stages of T and B cell maturation. It results in the highly diverse repertoire of antibodies/immunoglobulins and T cell rece ...

, bacteriophage genetics as part of the phage group and co-discoverer of the amber-mutant of the

T4 bacteriophage T4 or T-4 may refer to: Airports and airlines * Heathrow Terminal 4 * Tiyas Military Airbase, also known as the T-4 Airbase Biology and medicine * T4 phage, a bacteriophage * Thyroxine (T4), a form of thyroid hormone * the T4 spinal nerve * th ...

that led to the recognition of stop codons. The amber

mutant In biology, and especially in genetics, a mutant is an organism or a new genetic character arising or resulting from an instance of mutation, which is generally an alteration of the DNA sequence of the genome or chromosome of an organism. It ...

s discovered by Charles Steinberg in collaboration with Richard Epstein provided a unique opportunity to study the function of virtually all the

gene In biology, the word gene (from , ; "...Wilhelm Johannsen coined the word gene to describe the Mendelian units of heredity..." meaning ''generation'' or ''birth'' or ''gender'') can have several different meanings. The Mendelian gene is a ba ...

s of phage T4 that are required for growth of the phage under laboratory conditions. The circumstances under which the amber mutants were discovered was described by Edgar in a retrospective article.Edgar B. The genome of bacteriophage T4: an archeological dig. Genetics. 2004 Oct;168(2):575-82. Review. No abstract available. Soon after their discovery, the phage amber mutants, initially characterized by Steinberg and Epstein, were made available to many other investigators. These mutants were used to obtain important insights into fundamental aspects of biology. The amber mutants contributed to our understanding of the functions and interactions of the

protein Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including catalysing metabolic reactions, DNA replication, respo ...

s employed in

DNA replication In molecular biology, DNA replication is the biological process of producing two identical replicas of DNA from one original DNA molecule. DNA replication occurs in all living organisms acting as the most essential part for biological inheritanc ...

DNA repair DNA repair is a collection of processes by which a cell identifies and corrects damage to the DNA molecules that encode its genome. In human cells, both normal metabolic activities and environmental factors such as radiation can cause DNA dam ...

genetic recombination Genetic recombination (also known as genetic reshuffling) is the exchange of genetic material between different organisms which leads to production of offspring with combinations of traits that differ from those found in either parent. In eukaryo ...

and the assembly of

virus A virus is a submicroscopic infectious agent that replicates only inside the living cells of an organism. Viruses infect all life forms, from animals and plants to microorganisms, including bacteria and archaea. Since Dmitri Ivanovsky's 1 ...

es from their molecular components.

References

1932 births 1999 deaths American biologists Genetics Immunology 20th-century biologists {{molecular-cell-biology-stub

See also

References