Daniel Nathans (October 30, 1928 - November 16, 1999) was an American microbiologist and Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine. In 1978, he shared the Nobel Prize with Hamilton Smith and Werner Arber for their discovery of restriction endonucleases, enzymes that can cut DNA at specific sequences. This groundbreaking discovery laid the foundation for molecular biology and genetic engineering technologies, revolutionizing biological research and biotechnology development.
