Robert Lehman: Laying the foundation for discoveries in genetics and biotechnology

Robert Lehman, PhD, is the William M. Hume Professor, Emeritus. His work established the building blocks on which a wealth of genetics and biotechnology rests today through his discovery of DNA polymerase, the enzyme which actually synthesizes DNA; and an enzyme called DNA ligase, which can stitch two separate DNA molecules together. Both play a critical role in how DNA is replicated, damaged DNA is repaired, and how DNA molecules recombine with each other.