Joint statement from Michael M. Gottesman, M.D., Deputy Director for Intramural Research, NIH and Griffin P. Rodgers, M.D., M.A.C.P., Director, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases

We are sad to relay news of the passing of Herbert Tabor, M.D., the world's foremost authority on the enzymatic pathways of polyamines, as well as an esteemed editor of the Journal of Biological Chemistry (JBC) for 40 years, and, until his death at age 101, a senior principal investigator in the NIDDK Laboratory of Biochemistry and Genetics, where he had served as lab chief until 1999.

Herb, along with his wife, Celia, also a physician scientist, who died in 2012, revealed the multitude of functions served by polyamines, organic compounds that interact with DNA, RNA, and proteins.  The Tabors demonstrated that polyamines are required for growth of most organisms; protect against oxidative damage, elevated temperatures, and other environmental insults; and help maintain mitochondria and the fidelity of protein biosynthesis.

Herb died peacefully in his sleep at his home on the NIH campus on August 20, 2020.  He was a consummate scientist to the very end, working remotely on research papers with NIH colleagues.  Aside from leaving a profound scientific legacy, he was the last living voice of the NIH's formative years, having arrived in 1943 to the then recently created Bethesda campus. 

Such a great loss for the NIH and broader scientific community of a warm, humble, insightful and imaginative man.  Herb was truly loved and respected by everyone who worked with him, at the NIH and beyond.