Har gobind khorana

Throughout his career, Har Gobind Khorana was devoted to working in the lab himself. When his lab undertook a new research direction, he insisted on knowing how to master the relevant experimental methods with his own hands. Khorana is shown here conducting a DNA polymerase assay at the University of Wisconsin. Photo: University of Wisconsin-Madison Archives (S04437). The rise of the information age in the second half of the 20th centurywas spurred on by two related but distinct scientific and technologicalrevolutions. The first, of course, was the digital revolution, whichemerged with the development of the mathematics necessary forcomputation and data storage based entirely on a binary code. Thesecond revolution came about from the discovery that information encoded in the molecular sequence of DNA carries the instructions forthe working parts of a cell and thus is the blueprint of life. The field ofmolecular biology emerged as the study of how genetic information istransmitted from one generation to another and is read out to form functional cellular components and regulatory circuits. The foundational science of molecular biology has led to methodsfor reading and writing biological information and to alter genomesby design. The capability to reprogram living organisms to do usefulthings forms the basis of the biotechnology industry. No single institution has had a greater impact in accelerating therevolution in molecular biology and biotechnology than MIT. Theorigins o...

Har Gobind Khorana. Photo: nobelprize.org • Har Gobind Khorana was born in Multan in pre-independence India and made important contributions to the chemical synthesis of genetic materials. • He was awarded the Nobel Prize for medicine in 1968 along with Marshall Nirenberg and Robert Holley for their work on deciphering the genetic code. • The Indian government awarded Khorana the Padma Vibhushan in 1969; he has received no recognition from the Pakistani government, however. Today marks the 100th birth anniversary of the biochemist and chemical biologist Har Gobind Khorana. Perhaps best known for winning the medicine Nobel Prize in 1968, for showing that organic molecules called nucleotides are involved in the process by which the body produces new proteins, Khorana also made significant contributions to the science of PCR tests, which we use today to look for SARS-CoV-2 infections, and studies of an important protein Khorana was born on January 9, 1922, in Multan in pre-independence India. His father was a clerk in the local British government and his family was the only literate one in their village. He had one sister and four brothers, all elder. He finished his schooling in Multan, and received a bachelor’s degree in 1943 and a master’s in 1945, both from Punjab University. At this time, he was able to secure a scholarship from the British-Indian government to study at the University of Liverpool, and so he did, finishing his PhD from there in 1948. He then went on to a...

We’re celebrating Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month by shining a spotlight on scientists whose work changed the world. These scientists share a common heritage that traces back to Asia or the Pacific Islands, but they share more than that—each of them had a passion for science that drove them to make history. We must be modest except in our aims. Otto Loewi Few endeavors in science are modest. Even some of the seemingly more mundane and straightforward questions require a diligent, methodical, and bull-headed approach to truly reach a satisfying answer. There are still, of course, those discoveries that stand out. One such discovery was made thanks to Dr. Har Gobind Khorana, who was instrumental in deciphering the genetic code that’s written in our DNA. The above quote appears in the preface of a book ( Selected Papers of H. Gobind Khorana) written by Dr. Khorana and has since been referenced by others to describe him. Dr. Khorana was a modest but exceptionally important scientist whose work forever changed science and the world at large. A series of He was a trailblazer in multiple scientific disciplines including chemical and structural biology Khorana was born in Punjab, India, where he studied diligently and became one of the few individuals in his city who could read and write 1. His passion for learning helped him become a skilled chemist. After obtaining his Ph.D., Dr. Khorana had made a name for himself by being the first person to chemically synth...

Khorana was born into a poor family and attended the In the 1960s Khorana confirmed Nirenberg’s findings that the way the four different types of nucleotides are arranged on the spiral “staircase” of the DNA molecule determines the chemical Khorana made another contribution to genetics in 1970, when he and his research team were able to

This is the story of a great man, the fundamental impact he had on modern molecular biology, and the legacy he has left behind for future Indian students to thrive. This is the story of Khorana and the enduring footprint he has left in the hearts and minds of many at MIT. Har Gobind Khorana was born in Raipur, a small village in Punjab, which is now part of eastern Pakistan. He was home-schooled by his father, the village tax clerk. Khorana recalls, “Although poor, my father was dedicated to educating his children, and we were practically the only literate family in the village inhabited by 100 people.” This strong sense of value in education is something that stuck with Khorana as he grew. He went on to study at Punjab University and then left India in 1945 to pursue his PhD at the University of Liverpool. Early in his career, Khorana performed some of his most groundbreaking work, which would lay the basis for modern molecular biology. It was at the University of Wisconsin that Khorana first began to understand how nucleic acids code for protein. Khorana and his team deduced that different combinations of three RNA nucleotides code for unique amino acids, such as CAC codes for histidine and GCA codes for alanine. Thus, strings of RNA nucleotides can be translated into functional proteins composed of the corresponding amino acids. The great achievement of this work was almost immediately recognized with the In 1970, Khorana moved his home to MIT, where he stayed for nearl...

Share this • Share on Facebook: The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1968 Share this content on Facebook Facebook • Tweet: The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1968 Share this content on Twitter Twitter • Share on LinkedIn: The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1968 Share this content on LinkedIn LinkedIn • Share via Email: The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1968 Share this content via Email Email this page The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1968 Photo from the Nobel Foundation archive. Prize share: 1/3 Photo from the Nobel Foundation archive. Prize share: 1/3 Photo from the Nobel Foundation archive. Prize share: 1/3 The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1968 was awarded jointly to Robert W. Holley, Har Gobind Khorana and Marshall W. Nirenberg "for their interpretation of the genetic code and its function in protein synthesis" To cite this section MLA style: The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1968. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Prize Outreach AB 2023. Thu. 15 Jun 2023.