Harrison Echols; UC Berkeley Professor, Pioneer in DNA Research

Harrison Echols, 59, a professor of molecular and cell biology at UC Berkeley who pioneered research in DNA. He studied how virus DNA, the material in all cells that contains the genetic code, moves in and out of a host cell’s DNA, and advanced the understanding of both viral infection and normal cell function. Echols was chairman of the molecular biology department and virus laboratory at the university from 1978 to 1980. A history Echols was writing of his field, titled “Operators and Promoters: The Story of Molecular Biology,” will be published posthumously. On Sunday in Berkeley of lung cancer.