Catalyst

The Society of Chemical Industry (American Section) awarded the Perkin Medal, the highest honor in American industrial chemistry, to biochemist and Genentech co-founder Herbert Boyer at a reception in Philadelphia last week. Boyer was honored for his work on recombinant DNA.
In accepting the award, Boyer reflected on innovation, the importance of science and technology education, and the progress brought about by efforts across many scientific disciplines to advance work on DNA. “It is not just biology, not just chemistry, but other disciplines that also have made this work possible,” Boyer says. “We would not be where we are today without the use of computers in understanding human life and DNA.”
Boyer, along with geneticist Stanley Cohen of Stanford University, first demonstrated the usefulness of recombinant DNA technology to produce medicines. That work provided the foundation for Genentech, which effectively launched the biotech industry that continues to transform the pharmaceutical and chemical sector.
“Everyday in DuPont’s labs researchers make use of science and techniques pioneered by Boyer,” DuPont executive v.p. and chief innovation officer Thomas Connelly said in introducing Boyer. Early results of DuPont’s efforts in this area include bio-based 1,3-propanediol, a material that DuPont developed in partnership with Genencor, which was originally formed as a jv between Genentech and Corning. “We do not pursue proteins for human health, but rather proteins that catalyze a broad range of chemicals using the unique and elegant chemistry of living organisms as a reactor,” Connelly says.
Advancements in life expectancy rates and quality of life have been driven because of the value society has placed on science, technology, and innovation, Boyer says. “This progress has happened, I think, because of the recognition by our society of the benefit of investing in science and technology,” he says. After World War II, government funding of science and technology education programs spurred extraordinary work by scientists and researchers including Boyer. Investment in science and technology has been “very fruitful,” Boyer says. “The increase in knowledge and technology is so impressive and occurs at such a rapid rate that innovation will go on as long as we don’t find some way to stifle it.”