Papers of Alan Gregg and Paul Berg Added to Profiles in Science®

The Alan Gregg Papers and the Paul Berg Papers have recently been added to the NLM® Profiles in Science Web site, a site dedicated to the lives and works of prominent 20th century biomedical scientists.

In a career spanning nearly four decades, Rockefeller Foundation officer Alan Gregg (1890-1957) became one of the most influential men in the world of medical education and research. Joining the Rockefeller Foundation in 1919 as an International Health Board field officer, Gregg served as Director of the Medical Sciences Division for over twenty years before finishing his career as the foundation's Vice President. During this time, he oversaw the expenditure of millions of dollars to physicians, scientists, universities, and institutes engaged in medical training and research. Given the Rockefeller Foundation's importance, Gregg contributed to many important medical developments of his day, including the establishment of psychiatry as a scientific discipline, Alfred C. Kinsey's sex research, trials and development of sulfanilamide and penicillin, and the establishment of the National Library of Medicine. Even more significant was Gregg's role in creating the model of medical research funding, which still prevails in the United States today.

American biochemist Paul Berg (b. 1926) has made outstanding contributions to biochemistry and molecular biology for over fifty years. As a young researcher he resolved several key problems in metabolic chemistry, and went on to discover the mechanisms by which DNA and RNA direct the synthesis of proteins in living systems. In 1972, he and his colleagues at Stanford University synthesized the first recombinant DNA (rDNA), and he subsequently led the international community of rDNA researchers in their efforts to address the potential physical and ethical hazards posed by that revolutionary technology. He received the 1980 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his protein synthesis and rDNA work.

Papers of Alan Gregg and Paul Berg Added to Profiles in Science®. NLM Tech Bull. 2008 Jul-Aug; (363):e11.