Tatum and Beadle shared the 1958 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine with Joshua Lederberg for ushering in the new era of modern biology.
Tatum was born in Boulder, Colorado, to Arthur Lawrie Tatum and Mabel Webb Tatum. He was the first of three children. Tatum's father held two degrees, an M.D. and a Ph.D. in pharmacology. Edward's mother was one of the first women to graduate from the University of Colorado. As a boy, Edward played the French horn and trumpet; his interest in music lasted his whole life.
Tatum earned his A.B. degree in chemistry from the University of Wisconsin in 1931, where his father had moved the family in order to accept as position as professor in 1931. In 1932, Tatum earned his master's degree in microbiology. Two years later, in 1934, he received a Ph.D. in biochemistry for a dissertation on the cellular biochemistry and nutritional needs of a bacterium. Understanding the biochemistry of microorganisms such as bacteria, yeast, and molds would persist at the heart of Tatum's career.
In 1937, Tatum was appointed a research associate at Stanford University in the department of biological sciences. There he embarked on the Drosophila (fruit fly) project with geneticist George Beadle, successfully determining that kynurenine was the enzyme responsible for the fly's eye color, and that it was controlled by one of the eye-pigment genes.
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