Author Spotlight: Henry Sobell, author of Organization of DNA in Chromatin and Premeltons in DNA
Dr. Henry M. Sobell is well-known for his major contribution to the understanding of how the anticancer agent, actinomycin D, binds to DNA and exerts its mechanism of action. He has penned two science books, Organization of DNA in Chromatin and Premeltons in DNA, all of which tackle at great length both the general features of how actinomycin binds to DNA and the organization of DNA into a hierarchical series of superhelices.
Dr. Sobell was born in Los Angeles, California on November 7, 1935, and grew up in Brooklyn, New York, where he attended Brooklyn Technical High School (1948-1952), Columbia College (1952-1956) and the University of Virginia School of Medicine (1956-1960). However, his path in medicine was short-lived when he later joined Professor Alexander Rich in the Department of Biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1960-1965). At MIT, he studied the technique of single-crystal X-ray analysis as a Helen Hay Whitney Postdoctoral Fellow.
From 1965 to 1993, Dr. Sobell joined the Department of Biophysics at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry and the Chemistry Department at the University of Rochester at the same time as a full professor in both departments. Dr. Sobell is now retired and living in the Adirondacks in Lake Luzerne, New York.
