Fraenkel-Conrat, Heinz Ludwig (1910–1999)

German-born US biochemist. He showed that the infectivity of bacteriophages (viruses that infect bacteria) is a property of their inner nucleic acid component, not the outer protein case.

In 1955 Fraenkel-Conrat developed a technique for separating the outer protein coat from the inner nucleic acid core of bacteriophages without seriously damaging either portion. He also succeeded in reassembling the components and showed that these reformed bacteriophages are still capable of infecting bacteria. This work raised fundamental questions about the molecular basis of life. He then showed that the protein component of bacteriophages is inert and that the nucleic acid component alone has the capacity to infect bacteria. Thus, it seemed the fundamental properties of life resulted from the activity of nucleic acids.

Fraenkel-Conrat was born and educated in Breslau (now Wrocław, Poland). With the Nazis' rise to power, he left Germany for the UK and the University of Edinburgh, after which he went to the USA. He became professor at the University of California in 1958.