Sylvy Kornberg née Sylvia Ruth Levy (1917–1986) was an American biochemist who carried out research on DNA replication and polyphosphate synthesis.
[2] She worked closely with her husband and research partner, Arthur Kornberg, contributing greatly to the characterization of DNA polymerization that earned him the 1959 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
[3] After earning her master's degree in biochemistry from the University of Rochester, Sylvy took a position at the National Cancer Institute, in Bethesda, Maryland, where she worked jointly with organic chemist Jonathan Hartwell, synthesizing novel carcinogens from plant extracts[3] and biologist Murray Shear, studying their effects on mice.
Sylvy was able to isolate and characterize the culprit: an enzyme that was degrading one of the DNA building blocks, deoxyguanosine triphosphate (dGTP) by removing its phosphates as a "tripolyphosphate" before it could be added.
"[3] Her work during her time at Washington University also included research into an enzyme responsible for synthesizing long chains of phosphate groups, called polyphosphate (PolyP) and studying their role in helping cells store and retrieve energy.
[8] After retiring, she continued to review and edit manuscripts from home, and returned to the lab for a couple more years to work with Arthur on studying the mechanism of how the anticancer drug bleomycin interferes with DNA replication.
[6] Their eldest, Roger Kornberg, became a professor of structural biology at Stanford University and received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2006 for work on transcription, the process in which the DNA instructions for making proteins are first copied into messenger RNA.
[7] Their middle son, Thomas Kornberg, became a professor of biochemistry and physics at the University of California, San Francisco, and was the first to characterize DNA polymerases II and III.