期刊名称：Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
印刷版ISSN：0027-8424
电子版ISSN：1091-6490
出版年度：2021
卷号：118
期号：6
页码：1
DOI：10.1073/pnas.2025935118
出版社：The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
摘要：Charles M. Radding, a pioneer of recombination biochemistry, passed away on October 20, 2020, at the age of 90. Charles was a world-renowned scientist who made major contributions to the fields of DNA recombination and repair, in particular through his mechanistic studies of the RecA protein. He was a man of humor and warmth, and an eloquent and inspiring lecturer who had a profound influence on others in the field. Charles was married to his wife Natalie for over 65 years, and has three daughters and a grandson. Charles M. Radding at a laboratory celebration. Image credit: David Keith Gonda. The blackboard in the Radding laboratory was a ripe source of new recombination models and mechanisms for how RecA might drive recombination. Image credit: David Keith Gonda. Charles grew up in Springfield, Massachusetts. He was the youngest boy of five, and had one younger sister. His parents, Morris and Sara Radding, came from Russia in search of a better life. Unfortunately, Charles was born and raised in the shadow of the Great Depression and his family lost their business and home. It was not an easy time. But Charles was lucky enough to receive a chemistry set when he was 10 and this encouraged his curiosity in understanding the natural world. He discovered that chemistry provided a way to describe material things, and that the chemical codes for salt and sugar opened the door to view compounds in a way that words could not. Even at that early age he was fascinated by the concept that chemical interactions underpinned the workings of the human body. Encouraged by an elder brother, Charles decided to go into medicine and enrolled in Harvard College. He was fascinated by the lectures of George Wald, who later received the Nobel Prize for discoveries … [↵][1]1To whom correspondence may be addressed.
