Contents
Har Gobind Khorana
Helping decipher how the genetic code specifies proteins.
Decoding RNA · Medicine Nobel
- Born
- 9 January 1922
- Birthplace
- Raipur, British India (now Pakistan)
- Died
- 9 November 2011
More people
Har Gobind Khorana
Har Gobind Khorana was an Indian-American biochemist who shared the 1968 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Marshall Nirenberg and Robert Holley.
Early life
Village childhood
Grew up in a family that strongly valued education despite limited resources.
International study
Studied in Lahore and completed a doctorate in Liverpool.
Career
- 1950s
Vancouver laboratory
Established research in nucleic-acid chemistry.
- 1960s
Wisconsin
Used synthetic molecules to investigate the genetic code.
- 1970 onward
MIT
Continued work on genes and membrane proteins.
Contributions
Decoding RNA
Used defined RNA sequences to establish how codons specify amino acids.
Medicine Nobel
Shared recognition for interpreting the genetic code.
Synthetic genes
His group assembled a gene chemically and advanced synthetic-gene research.
Beyond the lab
Family
Married Esther Sibler in 1952.
Educational legacy
Programmes bearing his name support international scientific training.
Sources & photo credit
Life, career and references ↗Nobel Prize: award and biography ↗Photo: Unknown author Unknown author. Public domain · Original image. Cropped and displayed in monochrome.
