Sidney Altman, a molecular biologist who was awarded the 1988 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for sharing in the discovery that ribonucleic acid, or RNA, was not just a carrier of genetic information but could also be a catalyst for chemical reactions in cells — a breakthrough that paved the way for new gene therapies and treatments for viral infections — died on April 5 in Rockleigh, NJ. He was 82.

The discovery that RNA could function as an enzyme upended one of the central tenets of biology: that proteins are necessary to perform chemical reactions in cells. The discovery suggested that simple RNA molecules had come before proteins and DNA, the double-helix building blocks of life. The finding ran contrary to what at the time was established theory, which held that the proteins that were the catalysts in enzymes. The Nobel Institute declared that the discovery had “a profound influence on our understanding of how life on earth began.”

Dr. Altman spent most of his career at Yale University, was involved in the Judaic studies program there, and was an honorary trustee of the university’s Joseph Slifka Center for Jewish Life.