NOTEWORTHY DEATHS

LITTLE ROCK — Pioneer in genetic engineering

PALO ALTO, Calif. - Dr.

Arthur Kornberg, whose test-tube synthesis of DNA earned him the Nobel Prize in 1959, has died. He was 89.

Kornberg died Friday of respiratory failure at Stanford Hospital. A representative from Stanford University confirmed his death.

Kornberg, an active professor emeritus of biochemistry at the university's School of Medicine, shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Dr. Severo Ochoa of New York University. Kornberg discovered the chemical mechanism that demonstrated how DNA - the blueprint of heredity - gets constructed in the cell.

Kornberg and Ochoa discovered enzymes that create the genetic building blocks of DNAand RNA. Kornberg found and named what is known as DNA polymerase, which is responsible for assembling the building blocks. Their studies served as a precursor to genetic engineering, and have provided the basis for many drugs now in use to treat cancer and viral infections.

A Brooklyn-native, Kornberg was born on March 3, 1918. After attending New York public schools, he earned his bachelor's degree in chemistry and biology from the City College of New York in 1937. He earned his MD from the University of Rochester in 1941.

Kornberg also wrote several books, including a scientific memoir, For the Love of Enzymes: The Odyssey of a Biochemist, in 1989. His last book, due in bookstores Nov. 15, is a children's book, Germ Stories.