Herbert Boyer
E46086
Herbert Boyer is an American biochemist and genetic engineer renowned as a pioneer of recombinant DNA technology and a co-founder of the biotechnology company Genentech.
All labels observed (7)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Herbert Boyer canonical | 6 |
| Herbert W. Boyer | 5 |
| Cohen–Boyer patents on recombinant DNA | 1 |
| Herbert Wayne Boyer | 1 |
| Paul Berg | 1 |
| co-founding Genentech | 1 |
| genetic engineering pioneer Herbert Boyer | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T363271 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Herbert Boyer Context triple: [Genentech, foundedBy, Herbert Boyer]
-
A.
J. Michael Bishop
J. Michael Bishop is an American immunologist and microbiologist who shared the 1989 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering the cellular origin of retroviral oncogenes, fundamentally advancing cancer biology.
-
B.
Christopher Varmus
Christopher Varmus is one of the sons of Nobel Prize–winning American cancer researcher and former NIH director Harold Varmus.
-
C.
Walter Gilbert
Walter Gilbert is an American molecular biologist and Nobel laureate renowned for his pioneering work in DNA sequencing and gene regulation.
-
D.
Phillip A. Sharp
Phillip A. Sharp is an American molecular biologist and Nobel laureate renowned for his discovery of RNA splicing and his long-standing research and leadership at MIT.
-
E.
George Church
George Church was a stage actor known for his role in the original Broadway production of the musical "Oklahoma!".
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Herbert Boyer Target entity description: Herbert Boyer is an American biochemist and genetic engineer renowned as a pioneer of recombinant DNA technology and a co-founder of the biotechnology company Genentech.
-
A.
J. Michael Bishop
J. Michael Bishop is an American immunologist and microbiologist who shared the 1989 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering the cellular origin of retroviral oncogenes, fundamentally advancing cancer biology.
-
B.
Christopher Varmus
Christopher Varmus is one of the sons of Nobel Prize–winning American cancer researcher and former NIH director Harold Varmus.
-
C.
Walter Gilbert
Walter Gilbert is an American molecular biologist and Nobel laureate renowned for his pioneering work in DNA sequencing and gene regulation.
-
D.
Phillip A. Sharp
Phillip A. Sharp is an American molecular biologist and Nobel laureate renowned for his discovery of RNA splicing and his long-standing research and leadership at MIT.
-
E.
George Church
George Church was a stage actor known for his role in the original Broadway production of the musical "Oklahoma!".
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (47)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
biochemist
ⓘ
biotechnology entrepreneur ⓘ genetic engineer ⓘ human ⓘ |
| academicDegree |
PhD in bacteriology and immunology
ⓘ
bachelor's degree in biology ⓘ |
| alive | true ⓘ |
| awardReceived |
Albert Lasker Award for Special Achievement in Medical Science
ⓘ
National Medal of Science ⓘ National Medal of Technology and Innovation ⓘ |
| coFounded | Genentech ⓘ |
| coFounderWith |
Robert A. Swanson
ⓘ
linked to:
Robert Swanson
|
| collaboratedWith | Stanley N. Cohen ⓘ |
| countryOfCitizenship | United States of America ⓘ |
| dateOfBirth | 1936-07-10 ⓘ |
| doctoralAdvisor | Richard H. Stahlman ⓘ |
| educatedAt |
Saint Vincent College
ⓘ
University of Pittsburgh ⓘ |
| employer | University of California, San Francisco ⓘ |
| familyName | Boyer ⓘ |
| fieldOfWork |
biochemistry
ⓘ
biotechnology ⓘ genetic engineering ⓘ molecular biology ⓘ |
| givenName | Herbert ⓘ |
| hasPatentOn | methods for recombinant DNA cloning ⓘ |
| influenced | development of the modern biotechnology industry ⓘ |
| knownFor |
Cohen–Boyer patents on recombinant DNA
ⓘ
linked to:
Herbert Boyer
co-founding Genentech ⓘ pioneering genetic engineering in bacteria ⓘ recombinant DNA technology ⓘ |
| languageSpoken | English ⓘ |
| memberOf |
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
ⓘ
National Academy of Sciences ⓘ |
| name |
Herbert Wayne Boyer
ⓘ
linked to:
Herbert Boyer
|
| notableStudentOrCollaborator | Stanley N. Cohen ⓘ |
| notableWork |
development of methods to insert foreign DNA into plasmids
ⓘ
production of recombinant human growth hormone ⓘ production of recombinant human insulin in bacteria ⓘ |
| placeOfBirth | Derry, Pennsylvania, United States ⓘ |
| positionHeld |
professor of biochemistry at UCSF
ⓘ
vice president of Genentech ⓘ |
| residence | California, United States ⓘ |
| sexOrGender | male ⓘ |
| usedResearchTechnique |
DNA ligase
ⓘ
restriction enzymes ⓘ |
| workLocation | San Francisco, California ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Herbert Boyer Description of subject: Herbert Boyer is an American biochemist and genetic engineer renowned as a pioneer of recombinant DNA technology and a co-founder of the biotechnology company Genentech.
Referenced by (16)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
linked to: Herbert Boyer
linked to: Herbert Boyer
linked to: Herbert Boyer
linked to: Herbert Boyer
subject linked to:
Derry, Pennsylvania, United States
linked to: Herbert Boyer
linked to: Herbert Boyer
linked to: Herbert Boyer
Herbert Boyer Distinguished Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics at UCSF
→
namedFor
→
genetic engineering pioneer Herbert Boyer
ⓘ
linked to: Herbert Boyer
linked to: Herbert Boyer
linked to: Herbert Boyer