Background
Streisinger, George was born on December 27, 1927 in Budapest, Hungary. Son of Andor and Margit (Freund) Streisinger.
Streisinger, George was born on December 27, 1927 in Budapest, Hungary. Son of Andor and Margit (Freund) Streisinger.
Streisinger attended New York public schools and graduated from the Bronx High School of Science in 1944. He obtained a Bachelor of Surgery degree from Cornell University in 1950, and a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Illinois in 1953. He completed postdoctoral studies at the California Institute of Technology from 1953 to 1956.
He was the first person to clone a vertebrate, cloning zebra fish in his University of Oregon laboratory. He also pioneered work in the genetics of the T-even bacterial viruses. The University of Oregon"s Institute of Molecular Biology named their main building "Streisinger Hall" in his honor.
Because they were Jewish, in 1937, his family left Budapest for New York to escape Nazi persecution.
Streisinger accepted a post at the University of Oregon Institute of Molecular Biology in Eugene in 1960. Streisinger was well known as an innovative professor in and out of the classroom, conscripting a dance class to illustrate protein synthesis, and often requested beginning and non-major biology students.
He was very politically active, organizing grass-roots resistance to the Vietnam war and legislative opposition to John Kennedy"s civil defense program Following his graduation from Cornell, George undertook graduate studies in the genetics of T-even coliphage with South. East. Luria in the Bacteriology Department of the University of Illinois.
His studies revealed phenotypic mixing, in which a phage with a host-range genotype of one phage type was found in a particle who was phenotypically dissimilar.
When published in 1956, these studies had profound impact on the study of viral biology. During his postdoc at CalTech, with Jean Weigle, he undertook further studies on T2 × T4 hybrids, which led to the discovery of deoxyribonucleic acid modification (by glucosylation). At the University of Oregon, Streisinger pioneered the study of zebrafish in his laboratory
Zebrafish can be genetically modified easily, and researchers can modify them to mimic the traits of certain diseases.
In analyzing these created diseases, scientists seek solutions to diseases which affect humans. Over 5,000 researchers in 450 labs throughout 31 countries study zebrafish, and many of them received their initial training at the University of Oregon.
Member National Academy of Sciences.
Married Lotte Sielman, June 12, 1949. Children: Lisa, Cory.