Dr. Nahum Sonenberg

NAHUM SONENBERG, Department of Biochemistry, McGill University, is one of Canada's most respected investigators in the regulation of protein synthesis and the recognized authority on the role of cap structure in protein synthesis. His contributions to biochemistry and molecular biology include the discovery of the mRNA cap binding proteins in eukaryotes which assure that the mRNA is recognized by the ribosomal machinery; his further elucidation of the nature of the cap, its binding proteins and their role in translation; the discovery that the cap binding protein is a proto-oncogene required; and the demonstration that the unwinding of mRNA is for ribosome binding.