Sidney Altman: Canadian American molecular biologist (1939-2022)

He was a Professor of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology and Chemistry at Yale University. In 1989 he shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Thomas Cech for their work on the catalytic properties of RNA. Altman was of Jewish descent.

Sidney Altman
Altman in 2012
Born	(1939-05-07)May 7, 1939 Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Died	April 5, 2022(2022-04-05) (aged 82) Rockleigh, New Jersey, U.S.
Nationality	Canadian & American
Alma mater	MIT, University of Colorado at Boulder
Known for	Ribozymes
Spouse	Ann Korner (m. 1972; 2 children)
Awards	Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1989) Lomonosov Gold Medal (2016)
Scientific career
Fields	Molecular biology
Doctoral advisor	Leonard Lerman

Altman's Nobel Prize work came with the analysis of the catalytic properties of the ribozyme RNase P. RNase P is a ribonucleoprotein particle, part RNA and part protein. Originally it was thought that, in the bacterial RNase P complex, the protein subunit was responsible for the catalytic activity of the complex.

During experiments in which the complex was taken apart and put together in test tubes, Altman and his group discovered a remarkable thing. The RNA component, in isolation, was enough for the observed catalytic activity of the enzyme. This was remarkable because, previously, it was thought that only enzymes could catalyse reactions in living cells. Altman's research showed that RNA itself had catalytic properties. This was the discovery that earned him the Nobel prize.

Although the RNase P complex also exists in eukaryotic organisms, Altman's later work showed that in eukaryotes the protein subunits are essential to the catalytic activity, in contrast to the bacterial RNase P.

Altman died on April 5, 2022 in Rockleigh, New Jersey after a long illness at the age of 82.