His discovery of catalytic RNA has also given gene technology researchers a new tool with the potential for creating a new defense against infection. In 1997 Altman himself experimented with a method to combat bacteria's resistance to antibiotics by inserting artificial genes in bacteria to make them more sensitive to ampicillin and chloramphenicol, two widely used antibiotics.
Showed an Early Interest in Science
Altman was born on May 8, 1939, in Montreal, Quebec, the second son of poor immigrant parents. His father, Victor, worked in a grocery store in the city's Notre Dame de Grace neighborhood, where Altman grew up. His mother, Ray Arlin, had worked in a textile mill before marrying Victor but looked after the home and her children by the time Sidney was born. Altman's parents instilled in him an appreciation for the value of hard work. As he wrote in his autobiographical profile on the Nobel Prize Web site, "It was from them that I learned that hard work in stable surroundings could yield rewards, even if only in infinitesimally small increments." As a boy, he liked sports and writing, but his greatest love was reading.
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