Arthur Kornberg, a professor emeritus at the School of Medicine who was awarded the 1959 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for test-tube replication of viral DNA, died on Friday from respiratory failure at Stanford Hospital. He was 89.

“Dr. Kornberg was one of the most distinguished and remarkable scientists in American medicine,” said School of Medicine Dean Philip Pizzo in a statement. “His towering contributions have continued virtually up until the time of his death.”

Kornberg’s discovery of the enzyme DNA polymerase in 1957 paved the way for generations of biochemical research.

“I think it’s fair to say he’s a giant [in biochemistry],” said Emeritus Biochemistry Prof. Bob Lehman. “He founded the department of biochemistry at Stanford almost 40 years ago, which continues to be one of the premier departments in the country.”

Among other things, biochemists investigate the biological and chemical processes that allow organisms to grow and survive, relying heavily on knowledge about DNA, which contains instructions for how these processes take place. Until Kornberg’s Nobel Prize-winning discovery of DNA polymerase, scientists were unclear about how organisms created new copies of these DNA instructions.

Kornberg’s 1957 discovery came as a shock to the scientific community.

“His work was initially rejected by [a leading publication],” said Lehman, who worked with Kornberg for nearly 50 years. “Eventually it was published. The next year, he got the Nobel Prize.”

Cancer drugs and antiretrovirals used to treat HIV were formed with methods developed in Kornberg’s research.

“Enzymes discovered by him and his students laid the foundation for the genetic engineering revolution, which has huge implications,” Lehman said. “It has had a huge impact on public health.”

Kornberg’s work formed the basis for DNA sequencing, which eventually led to the mapping of the human genome in the Human Genome Project. He trained students for nearly all of his 50-year research career and has been compared to an intellectual grandfather by today’s top biochemical and genetic researchers.

“He really trained generations of leading investigators,” said Charles Brenner, a professor of genetics and biochemistry at Dartmouth University. “The people that come out of his laboratory are literally continuing his legacy on every continent.”

Colleagues remember him as an intellectually demanding person who cared equally about enzymes and people.

“What struck me about him was that he treated the people around him with love and respect,” said Anand Setharaman, senior bioinformatics programmer at the Stanford Human Genome Center.

“He treated everyone that came to visit him with respect and kindness,” added Gini Chambers, his administrative assistant of eight years.

Former students also remember his demanding work ethic and passionate interest in all stages of their work.

“He really cared about people, and he wanted people to be extremely dedicated and intensely focused,” said former student and Biochemistry Prof. Doug Brutlag Ph.D. ‘72. “When he vacationed in Italy, I was in the middle of a big experiment for my research. He left with his secretary numbers that he could be contacted at, so I could tell him what was going on in the lab.”

Many of his students wrote on the memorial guestbook available on the School of Medicine Web site.

Kornberg is survived by three sons and eight grandchildren. His son Roger Kornberg Ph.D. ‘72, a structural biology professor, followed in his father’s footsteps by earning the 2006 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, an award which made the duo one of six father-son Nobel Prize-winning pairs.

Tom, his middle son, was a cellist at Julliard before making his own groundbreaking discoveries as a biochemist at UC-San Francisco, and his youngest son Kenneth is an architect at a firm that specializes in laboratory design.

The family held a small memorial gathering at their home on Sunday. Burial arrangements are private, but the University will be holding a celebration of Kornberg’s life and accomplishments, according to Pizzo’s office.

“He always stood for the right things,” said 1980 Nobel laureate Paul Berg, professor emeritus of biochemistry, in a statement. “To him, honesty and integrity in science was uppermost.”