Arthur Pardee

Arthur Beck Pardee
Born(1921-07-13)July 13, 1921
DiedFebruary 24, 2019(2019-02-24) (aged 97)
EducationBachelor of Science degree from the University of California, Berkeley (1942)
Master's degree from California Institute of Technology (1943)
PhD degree from California Institute of Technology (1947)
Alma materUniversity of California, Berkeley
Known forPaJaMo Experiment
AwardsPfizer Award in Enzyme Chemistry (1960)
Sir Hans Krebs Medal (1973)
Rosenstiel Award (1974)
Scientific career
FieldsMolecular biology
InstitutionsDana–Farber Cancer Institute; Harvard Medical School


Arthur Beck Pardee (July 13, 1921 – February 24, 2019) was an American biochemist. One biographical portrait[1] begins "Among the titans of science, Arthur Pardee is especially intriguing." There is hardly a field of molecular biology that is not affected by his work, which has advanced our understanding through theoretical predictions followed by insightful experiments. He is perhaps most famous for his part in the 'PaJaMo experiment' of the late 1950s, which greatly helped in the discovery of messenger RNA.[2] He is also well known as the discoverer of the restriction point, in which a cell commits itself to certain cell cycle events during the G1 cycle. He did a great deal of work on tumor growth and regulation, with a particular focus on the role of estrogen in hormone-responsive tumors. He is also well known for the development of various biochemical research techniques, most notably the differential display methodology, which is used in examining the activation of genes in cells. More recently he championed the acceptance and adoption of the conceptual review as a valuable approach to unearthing new knowledge from the enormous stores of information in the scientific literature. He died in February 2019 at the age of 97.[3]

  1. ^ Blagosklonny, Mikhail V.; Campisi, Judith; Keyomarsi, Khandan; Medrano, Estela E. (2001). "No Restriction Points in Life and Science". Cell Cycle. 1 (2): 100–2. PMID 12429915.
  2. ^ Meselson, Matthew (2014). "François and "X"". Research in Microbiology. 165 (5): 313–315. doi:10.1016/j.resmic.2014.05.004. PMID 24853970.
  3. ^ Arthur B. Pardee