Sol Spiegelman: Decoding Life's Blueprint | Scientist Biography

Spiegelman was born in Brooklyn, New York City in 1914. He attended the City College of New York and was initially interested in biology, but found the courses uninspiring and instead chose to focus on math and physics. During his undergraduate work he took a leave of absence to work in a biology laboratory, where he studied the genetics of bacteria. He graduated in 1939 with a bachelor's degree in mathematics. He then began his graduate studies at Columbia University in 1940, studying cellular physiology under the supervision of H.B. Steinbach. Spiegelman joined Steinbach in his move to Washington University School of Medicine two years later, and received his PhD from that institution in 1944. His graduate work focused on what was then known as enzymatic "induction" or "adaptation", now known to reflect changes in gene expression in response to environmental factors. He continued to work at Washington University until 1948, and then took a one-year Public Health Service fellowship at the University of Minnesota.

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