Allan Maxam (born October 28, 1942) is an American geneticist and one of the pioneers of molecular genetics. He co-developed the Maxam–Gilbert DNA sequencing method in 1976–1977 at Harvard University while working as a student in the laboratory of Walter Gilbert.DNA SEQUENCING AND GENE STRUCTURE, Walter Gilbert Nobel lecture, 8 December, 1980
Maxam–Gilbert sequencing combined chemicals that cut DNA only at specific bases with radioactive labeling and polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis to determine the sequence of long DNA segments.Maxam AM, Gilbert W, Sequencing end-labeled DNA with base-specific chemical cleavages, Methods Enzymol. 1980;65(1):499-560
Their 1977 paper "A new method for sequencing DNA" was honored by a Citation for Chemical Breakthrough Award from the Division of History of Chemistry of the American Chemical Society for 2017. It was presented to the Department of Molecular & Cellular Biology at Harvard University.
See also Frederick Sanger Sanger sequencing
References
Further reading Gilbert, Walter and Maxam. Allan, The Nucleotide Sequence of the Lac Operator, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 70, 3581-3584 (1973). Maxam AM, Tizard R, Skryabin KG, Gilbert W, Promoter region for yeast 5S ribosomal RNA, Nature. 1977 June 16;267(5612):643-5