Born in Argentina Nathan graduated Medical school of the University of Cordoba and made Aliya to Israel in 1949 with his wife Zila. They settled in Kibuz Maabarot where he served as a rural physician, riding on horse, visiting settlements of new immigrants. He then served in the IDF as a physician. After release from service in 1956, he joined the Department of Experimental Biology of the Weizmann Institute, headed by Prof. Isaac Berenblum.

He focused on cancer research, studying a possible two stage mechanism in experimental leukomogenesis, using radiation and chemicals such as Urethan. He then moved to study the function of thymic tissue in diffusion chambers implanted in neonatally thymectomized mice. This led him to discover a thymic humoral factor shown to prevent wasting and influencing lymphopoiesis in such mice. He then proceeded to characterize this factor focusing on its role in the development of cell-mediated immune competence. In collaboration with Prof. Yigal Burstein from the Department of Organic Chemistry, the Thymic Humoral Factor (THF) has been purified from calf thymus and sequenced as an octapeptide. Together with Prof. Rina Zaizov from the Dept. of Pediatric Oncology at the Beilinson hospital a beneficial effect of THF in immunosuppressed children with lymphoproliferative neoplasia and generalized varicella was observed. Furthermore, in collaboration with Prof. Shlomo Ben-Efraim from the Tel Aviv University medical school, it was discovered that THF repairs immunodeficiency of mice cured from plasmacytoma. With Dr. Marit Pecht it was found that THF potentiates myeloid colony formation in bone marrow of intact and neonatally thymectomized mice. He published more than 200 papers and reviews. This research has been interrupted by the untimely death of Nathan.
Besides his research conducted almost till his last days, Nathan contributed to the society, heading the Israel CancerAssociation and helping cancer patients with advice and empath