Five-year-old Frances Arnold with Edward, one of her four brothers, at home in Edgewood, Pennsylvania.
Gallery of Frances Arnold
1961
Edgewood, Pennsylvania, United States
Five-year-old Frances Arnold at home in Edgewood, Pennsylvania.
College/University
Gallery of Frances Arnold
1977
Italy
Frances Arnold in Italy. After her sophomore year in Princeton, Arnold took a year off, traveled to Italy, and got a job in a factory near Milan that manufactured nuclear power components.
Gallery of Frances Arnold
1977
Frances Arnold in youth.
Gallery of Frances Arnold
1977
A young Frances Arnold.
Gallery of Frances Arnold
1983
University Dr, Berkeley, CA 94720, United States
Frances Arnold in front of Latimer Hall at the University of California, Berkeley, 1983.
Gallery of Frances Arnold
1983
Kings Canyon National Park, United States
Frances Arnold hiking in Kings Canyon National Park in 1983.
Gallery of Frances Arnold
1985
Berkeley, CA, United States
Frances Arnold working at her bench during graduate school at the University of California Berkeley. Arnold studied mechanical and aerospace engineering at Princeton University. After graduating from Princeton in 1979, she continued her studies at the University of California, Berkeley, where she earned a doctorate in chemical engineering in 1985.
Career
Gallery of Frances Arnold
2014
Beverly Hills, California, United States
Sidney Poitier was inducted into the Academy of Achievement by Oprah Winfrey in a ceremony held in Beverly Hills. They were joined by Frances Arnold of Caltech and Chairman Catherine B. Reynolds.
Gallery of Frances Arnold
2018
Frescativägen 6, 114 18 Stockholm, Sweden
Nobel Prize in Chemistry laureates George P. Smith, Frances H. Arnold, and Gregory P. Winter pose on stage after their Nobel Lectures at the Aula Magna, Stockholm University, in Sweden. The Royal Swedish Academy awarded the 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with one half to Frances H. Arnold of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, United States, “for the directed evolution of enzymes” and the other half jointly to George P. Smith of the University of Missouri, Columbia, United States, and Sir Gregory P. Winter of the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, United Kingdom, "for the phage display of peptides and antibodies." Photo by Christine Olsson.
Gallery of Frances Arnold
2018
Stockholm, Sweden
Frances Arnold with her son Joe Lange in Stockholm.
Gallery of Frances Arnold
2018
1200 E California Blvd, Pasadena, CA 91125, United States
Frances Arnold at the California Institute of Technology.
Gallery of Frances Arnold
2018
Frescativägen 6, 114 18 Stockholm, Sweden
Nobel Prize in Chemistry laureates George P. Smith, Frances H. Arnold and Gregory P. Winter pose on stage after their Nobel Lectures at the Aula Magna, Stockholm University, in Sweden. The Royal Swedish Academy awarded the 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with one half to Frances H. Arnold of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, United States, "for the directed evolution of enzymes" and the other half jointly to George P. Smith of the University of Missouri, Columbia, United States, and Sir Gregory P. Winter of the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, United Kingdom, "for the phage display of peptides and antibodies." Photo by Christine Olsson.
Gallery of Frances Arnold
2018
1200 E California Blvd, Pasadena, CA 91125, United States
Frances Arnold and her sons Joseph Lange (left) and James Bailey (right) at Caltech in Pasadena, California, following a press announcement of her winning the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Arnold won the Nobel for chemistry along with George P. Smith of the United States and Sir Gregory P. Winter of Britain. Photo by Frederic J. Brown.
Gallery of Frances Arnold
2018
Hötorget 8, 103 87 Stockholm, Sweden
Frances H. Arnold, laureate of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry and Prince Daniel of Sweden attend the Nobel Prize Banquet 2018 at City Hall on December 10, 2018, in Stockholm, Sweden. Photo by Pascal Le Segretain.
Gallery of Frances Arnold
2018
Stockholm, Sweden
Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine co-winner Tasuku Honjo and Nobel Prize in Chemistry laureate Frances Arnold talk at the Diet a day after the award ceremony on December 11, 2018, in Stockholm, Sweden.
Gallery of Frances Arnold
2018
Stockholm, Sweden
Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine co-winner Tasuku Honjo and Nobel Prize in Chemistry laureate Frances Arnold talk the Diet a day after the award ceremony on December 11, 2018, in Stockholm, Sweden.
Gallery of Frances Arnold
2018
1200 E California Blvd, Pasadena, CA 91125, United States
Scientist Frances Arnold, winner of the 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, smiles at a celebratory press conference at Caltech on October 3, 2018, in Pasadena, California. Arnold shares the Nobel with scientist Greg Winter of Cambridge University and professor George Smith of the University of Missouri. Photo by Mario Tama.
Gallery of Frances Arnold
2018
1200 E California Blvd, Pasadena, CA 91125, United States
Scientist Frances Arnold, winner of the 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, enters a celebratory press conference at Caltech on October 3, 2018, in Pasadena, California. Arnold shares the Nobel with scientist Greg Winter of Cambridge University and professor George Smith of the University of Missouri. Photo by Mario Tama.
Gallery of Frances Arnold
2019
404 S Figueroa St, Los Angeles, CA 90071, United States
Honoree Frances H. Arnold and Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas attend the KPCC 2019 Gala at Westin Bonaventure Hotel on March 16, 2019, in Los Angeles, California. Photo by Donato Sardella.
Gallery of Frances Arnold
2019
404 S Figueroa St, Los Angeles, CA 90071, United States
Southern California Public Radio President Emeritus Bill Davis, honoree Dr. Frances H. Arnold and Southern California Public Radio CEO Herb Scannell attend the KPCC 2019 Gala at Westin Bonaventure Hotel on March 16, 2019, in Los Angeles, California. Photo by Donato Sardella.
Gallery of Frances Arnold
2019
California, United States
Professor Frances H. Arnold portraying herself in the Big Bang Theory TV serises. Photo by Michael Yarish.
Gallery of Frances Arnold
2019
California, United States
President Siebert (Joshua Malina), Professor Frances H. Arnold (Herself), Amy Farrah Fowler (Mayim Bialik), Leonard Hofstadter (Johnny Galecki), Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons), Dr. Pemberton (Sean Astin), Dr. Campbell (Kal Penn) and Professor Kip Thorne (Himself) in the Big Bang Theory TV serises. Photo by Michael Yarish.
Achievements
Membership
American Association for the Advancement of Science
Frances Arnold is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
American Academy of Microbiology
Frances Arnold is a member of the American Academy of Microbiology.
American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering
Frances Arnold is a member of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.
Royal Academy of Engineering
Frances Arnold is a member of the Royal Academy of Engineering
National Academy of Medicine
Frances Arnold is a member of the National Academy of Medicine.
National Academy of Sciences
Frances Arnold is a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
National Academy of Engineering
Frances Arnold is a member of the National Academy of Engineering.
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Frances Arnold is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Pontifical Academy of Sciences
Frances Arnold is a member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.
Awards
National Medal of Technology and Innovation
2013
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20500, United States
February 1, 2013: President Barack Obama awards the National Medal of Technology and Innovation to Dr. Frances H. Arnold, a leader in the field of protein engineering and the director of Caltech’s Donna and Benjamin M. Rosen Bioengineering Center, in a ceremony at the White House in Washington, D.C. The National Medal of Technology and Innovation recognizes those who have made lasting contributions to America’s competitiveness and quality of life and helped strengthen the nation’s technological workforce. Photo by Brendan Hoffman.
Golden Plate Award
2014
San Francisco, California, United States
Awards Council member Lisa Randall, theoretical physicist, and Frank B. Baird, Jr. Professor of Science at Harvard, presenting the Golden Plate Award to Frances Arnold at the 2014 Banquet of the Golden Plate in San Francisco, California.
Millennium Technology Prize
2016
Helsinki, Finland
United States biochemical engineer Frances Arnold receives her Millennium Technology Prize 2016 from Finnish President Sauli Niinisto at the awards ceremony in Helsinki, Finland.
Nobel Prize in Chemistry
2018
Hötorget 8, 103 87 Stockholm, Sweden
December 10, 2018: Laureate of the 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry American chemical engineer Dr. Frances H. Arnold receives her Nobel Prize from King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, during the award ceremony at the Concert Hall in Stockholm, Sweden. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded one half of the 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Dr. Arnold “for the directed evolution of enzymes.” Photo by Jonathan Nackstrand.
Charles Stark Draper Prize
ENI Prize in Renewable and Nonconventional Energy
Raymond and Beverly Sackler Prize in Convergence Research
Frances Arnold in Italy. After her sophomore year in Princeton, Arnold took a year off, traveled to Italy, and got a job in a factory near Milan that manufactured nuclear power components.
Frances Arnold working at her bench during graduate school at the University of California Berkeley. Arnold studied mechanical and aerospace engineering at Princeton University. After graduating from Princeton in 1979, she continued her studies at the University of California, Berkeley, where she earned a doctorate in chemical engineering in 1985.
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20500, United States
February 1, 2013: President Barack Obama awards the National Medal of Technology and Innovation to Dr. Frances H. Arnold, a leader in the field of protein engineering and the director of Caltech’s Donna and Benjamin M. Rosen Bioengineering Center, in a ceremony at the White House in Washington, D.C. The National Medal of Technology and Innovation recognizes those who have made lasting contributions to America’s competitiveness and quality of life and helped strengthen the nation’s technological workforce. Photo by Brendan Hoffman.
Awards Council member Lisa Randall, theoretical physicist, and Frank B. Baird, Jr. Professor of Science at Harvard, presenting the Golden Plate Award to Frances Arnold at the 2014 Banquet of the Golden Plate in San Francisco, California.
Sidney Poitier was inducted into the Academy of Achievement by Oprah Winfrey in a ceremony held in Beverly Hills. They were joined by Frances Arnold of Caltech and Chairman Catherine B. Reynolds.
United States biochemical engineer Frances Arnold receives her Millennium Technology Prize 2016 from Finnish President Sauli Niinisto at the awards ceremony in Helsinki, Finland.
December 10, 2018: Laureate of the 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry American chemical engineer Dr. Frances H. Arnold receives her Nobel Prize from King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, during the award ceremony at the Concert Hall in Stockholm, Sweden. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded one half of the 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Dr. Arnold “for the directed evolution of enzymes.” Photo by Jonathan Nackstrand.
Nobel Prize in Chemistry laureates George P. Smith, Frances H. Arnold, and Gregory P. Winter pose on stage after their Nobel Lectures at the Aula Magna, Stockholm University, in Sweden. The Royal Swedish Academy awarded the 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with one half to Frances H. Arnold of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, United States, “for the directed evolution of enzymes” and the other half jointly to George P. Smith of the University of Missouri, Columbia, United States, and Sir Gregory P. Winter of the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, United Kingdom, "for the phage display of peptides and antibodies." Photo by Christine Olsson.
Nobel Prize in Chemistry laureates George P. Smith, Frances H. Arnold and Gregory P. Winter pose on stage after their Nobel Lectures at the Aula Magna, Stockholm University, in Sweden. The Royal Swedish Academy awarded the 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with one half to Frances H. Arnold of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, United States, "for the directed evolution of enzymes" and the other half jointly to George P. Smith of the University of Missouri, Columbia, United States, and Sir Gregory P. Winter of the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, United Kingdom, "for the phage display of peptides and antibodies." Photo by Christine Olsson.
1200 E California Blvd, Pasadena, CA 91125, United States
Frances Arnold and her sons Joseph Lange (left) and James Bailey (right) at Caltech in Pasadena, California, following a press announcement of her winning the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Arnold won the Nobel for chemistry along with George P. Smith of the United States and Sir Gregory P. Winter of Britain. Photo by Frederic J. Brown.
Frances H. Arnold, laureate of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry and Prince Daniel of Sweden attend the Nobel Prize Banquet 2018 at City Hall on December 10, 2018, in Stockholm, Sweden. Photo by Pascal Le Segretain.
Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine co-winner Tasuku Honjo and Nobel Prize in Chemistry laureate Frances Arnold talk at the Diet a day after the award ceremony on December 11, 2018, in Stockholm, Sweden.
Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine co-winner Tasuku Honjo and Nobel Prize in Chemistry laureate Frances Arnold talk the Diet a day after the award ceremony on December 11, 2018, in Stockholm, Sweden.
1200 E California Blvd, Pasadena, CA 91125, United States
Scientist Frances Arnold, winner of the 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, smiles at a celebratory press conference at Caltech on October 3, 2018, in Pasadena, California. Arnold shares the Nobel with scientist Greg Winter of Cambridge University and professor George Smith of the University of Missouri. Photo by Mario Tama.
1200 E California Blvd, Pasadena, CA 91125, United States
Scientist Frances Arnold, winner of the 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, enters a celebratory press conference at Caltech on October 3, 2018, in Pasadena, California. Arnold shares the Nobel with scientist Greg Winter of Cambridge University and professor George Smith of the University of Missouri. Photo by Mario Tama.
404 S Figueroa St, Los Angeles, CA 90071, United States
Honoree Frances H. Arnold and Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas attend the KPCC 2019 Gala at Westin Bonaventure Hotel on March 16, 2019, in Los Angeles, California. Photo by Donato Sardella.
404 S Figueroa St, Los Angeles, CA 90071, United States
Southern California Public Radio President Emeritus Bill Davis, honoree Dr. Frances H. Arnold and Southern California Public Radio CEO Herb Scannell attend the KPCC 2019 Gala at Westin Bonaventure Hotel on March 16, 2019, in Los Angeles, California. Photo by Donato Sardella.
President Siebert (Joshua Malina), Professor Frances H. Arnold (Herself), Amy Farrah Fowler (Mayim Bialik), Leonard Hofstadter (Johnny Galecki), Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons), Dr. Pemberton (Sean Astin), Dr. Campbell (Kal Penn) and Professor Kip Thorne (Himself) in the Big Bang Theory TV serises. Photo by Michael Yarish.
Directed Enzyme Evolution: Screening and Selection Methods
(The protocols in Directed Enzyme Evolution describe a ser...)
The protocols in Directed Enzyme Evolution describe a series of detailed procedures of proven utility for directed evolution purposes. The volume begins with several selection strategies for enzyme evolution and continues with assay methods that can be used to screen enzyme libraries. Genetic selections offer the advantage that functional proteins can be isolated from very large libraries supply by growing a population of cells under selective conditions.
Directed Evolution Library Creation: Methods and Protocols
(Biological systems are very special substrates for engine...)
Biological systems are very special substrates for engineering - uniquely the products of evolution, they are easily redesigned by similar approaches. A simple algorithm of iterative cycles of diversification and selection, evolution works at all scales, from single molecules to whole ecosystems. In the little more than a decade since the first reported applications of evolutionary design to enzyme engineering, directed evolution has matured to the point where it now represents the centerpiece of industrial biocatalyst development and is being practiced by thousands of academic and industrial scientists in companies and universities around the world.
Frances Arnold is an American chemical engineer. She was awarded the 2018 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for her work on directed evolution of enzymes. She shared the prize with American biochemist George P. Smith and British biochemist Gregory P. Winter.
Background
Frances Arnold was born on July 25, 1956, in Pittsburgh suburb Edgewood, Pennsylvania, United States, to the family of William Howard Arnold and Josephine Inman Routheau. She is the granddaughter of Lieutenant General William Howard Arnold. Arnold was the third of five children in a suburban family. Her mother was a homemaker. Her father, a nuclear physicist, helped Westinghouse Electric Company develop nuclear reactor plants. She greatly admired her father but rebelled against his conservative values. A family tradition of military service and the teachings of the Catholic Church lent themselves to an atmosphere of strong discipline in the Arnold home. From an early age, Frances Arnold displayed a skeptical, questioning spirit and a strong streak of independence that put her at odds with her tradition-minded parents. They quarreled over the Vietnam War, and teenage Frances hitchhiked to Washington, D.C to participate in antiwar demonstrations.
By the time Frances Arnold reached high school, this conflict became irreconcilable. Still in her teens, Frances moved out of her parents’ house, supporting herself with odd jobs and renting her own apartment in the city. By 17, she left them and her four brothers to move into her own apartment in Squirrel Hill (although still stopping by their home to do laundry).
Education
Frances Arnold graduated from Taylor Allderdice High School in 1974. She excelled in school but grew bored with it, ignoring her homework and skipping class. She drove a cab and waitressed in a jazz club. Though her grades were mediocre, Arnold parlayed near-perfect standardized test scores and a convincing essay into acceptance at Princeton University. At college, Arnold was no longer bored, but she still veered from the traditional path, taking a year off to live in Italy. She graduated in 1979 with a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical and aerospace engineering. Arnold returned to school, earning a Doctor of Philosophy degree in chemical engineering from the University of California at Berkeley in 1985, and staying for postdoctoral work in biophysical chemistry.
After Arnold left her parents at 17 she lived a mere two blocks from Allderdice, she frequently cut classes while working as a cocktail waitress Downtown at night. She drove for Yellow Cab before starting college. She traveled solo multiple times to Europe and South America while a student at Princeton. She’s been an adventurer ever since, including last year’s scuba diving vacation during Caltech’s Christmas break.
Arnold graduated during the second major oil crisis of the 1970s, and just a few months after the Three Mile Island accident. Hoping to use her engineering background to help the country shift away from both fossil fuels and nuclear power, Arnold went to work for the Solar Energy Research Group in Colorado. The Reagan Era ended the national quest – and accompanying funding – for renewable energy. Arnold returned for studies.
Arnold spent a year as a postdoctoral fellow at Berkeley before arriving at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) as a visiting associate. She became an assistant professor in 1987, an associate professor in 1992, and finally a full professor in 1996. There she intended to use emerging DNA technology to design new enzymes that could produce pharmaceuticals, plastics, and other chemicals that would otherwise be made with toxic materials.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, research that used enzymes to catalyze chemical reactions was very difficult, because the typical approach involved trying to figure out from first principles how to change an enzyme. Arnold decided to use a different approach, that of evolution. She altered the enyzme subtilisin E, which breaks down the protein casein, so it would work in the solvent dimethylformamide (DMF) instead of in the watery environment of a cell. She introduced many random mutations into the genetic code of bacteria that made subtilisin E, and she introduced her mutated enzymes into an environment that contained both DMF and casein. She selected the new enzyme that was best at breaking down casein in DMF and introduced random mutations into that enzyme. After three such generations, she ended up with a mutated subtilisin E that was 256 times better at breaking down casein in DMF than the original.
Arnold and her coworkers extended the technique of directed enzyme evolution to change enzymes for reactions that no enzyme had catalyzed before. They also evolved enzymes to make substances with bonds that do not occur in biology, such as bonds between carbon and silicon and carbon and boron.
Arnold co-founded two companies based on her work. Gevo, founded in 2005, uses yeast to make isobutanol, which can be used instead of ethanol in making fuel. Provivi, founded in 2013, alters insect pheromones so that pests harmful to crops will be unable to mate with each other.
Now the Linus Pauling Professor of Chemical Engineering, Bioengineering and Biochemistry at Caltech, Arnold is still researching, recently persuading enzymes to catalyze reactions not known in biology and developing new machine-learning-guided protein evolution methods.
(The protocols in Directed Enzyme Evolution describe a ser...)
2003
Religion
Formally baptized Roman Catholic in teenage, Arnold was never confirmed in the church as her father wanted.
Politics
Arnold is not very political, it is known that in her teens she protested against the war in Vietnam against the will of her parents. She seems to have more Democratic than republican and disappointed by one of her sons becoming a supporter of Donald Trump.
Views
Arnold set out to engineer a new version of the enzyme subtilisin, one that could still function in the solvent dimethylformamide (DMF) rather than in the watery environment of a cell. Enzymes are extremely complex molecules, consisting of as many as several thousand amino acids linked together in long chains, folded up into three-dimensional structures.
In the early 1990s, Arnold changed course. She abandoned the idea of trying to figure out how to engineer the desired property and turned to nature’s own method for optimizing chemistry: evolution. The technique she developed then is still used today.
Starting with the DNA in a particular protein (such as subtilisin), Arnold introduces mutations into the gene and reinserts the new variants into bacteria, which then produce new proteins. She looks through the resulting proteins to find those that exhibit the desired properties. She then extracts their DNA and repeats the process, breeding generation after generation until she gets a variant that does exactly what she wants. It’s Darwin’s survival of the fittest, except that Arnold decides what "fittest" means.
In 1993, when she was 37, Arnold demonstrated the power of using chance and "directed selection" to develop new enzymes. To her, it’s "totally obvious that this is the way it should be done." But "Some people looked down their noses at it," she said. "They said, ‘That’s not science.'" Scientists are supposed to use their "big brains" to figure out how to manipulate DNA. But as Arnold points out, even once she had created these beneficial mutations, scientists who studied their structures still couldn’t understand why they worked. They just did. She calls evolution "a force of nature that has led to the finest chemistry of all time."
Membership
Frances Arnold is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Academy of Microbiology, the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, the Royal Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Medicine, the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.
American Association for the Advancement of Science
,
United States
American Academy of Microbiology
,
United States
American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering
,
United States
Royal Academy of Engineering
,
United Kingdom
National Academy of Medicine
,
United States
National Academy of Sciences
,
United States
National Academy of Engineering
,
United States
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
,
United States
Pontifical Academy of Sciences
,
Vatican
Personality
Arnold’s hobbies include traveling, scuba diving, skiing, dirt-bike riding, and hiking. For her sabbatical in 2004, she and her husband, Caltech physicist Andrew Lange, took their sons on a yearlong, round-the-world tour with stops in Australia, Egypt, Namibia, Madagascar, South Africa, and Wales. Arnold appeared in the episode 18x12 of the TV series The Big Bang Theory portraying herself.
Physical Characteristics:
Arnold was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005, leading to successful but intensive chemotherapy treatment that cost her some fragments of childhood memories.
Interests
traveling, dirt-bike riding, hiking
Sport & Clubs
skiing
Connections
Frances Arnold was married to James E. Bailey, and they had one son, James. After her first marriage ended in divorce, her ex-husband died of colon cancer, and she was left raising their young son on her own. Arnold married Caltech astrophysicist Andrew E. Lange in 1994, and they had two sons, William and Joseph. Lange, who was a prominent cosmologist who died by suicide in 2010. In 2016 her son William Lange-Arnold died in an accident.