Hargobind Khorana (born January 9, 1922) is a molecular biologist.

Khorana was born in Raipur (at that time British India, now India). He was homeschooled by his father, and he later attended D.A.V. Multan High School. In 1945, he began studies at the University of Liverpool. After earning a Ph. D. in 1948, he continued his postdoctoral studies in Zürich (1948-49). Subsequently, he spent two years at Cambridge and his interests in proteins and nucleic acids took root that time. In 1952 he went to the University of British Columbia, Vancouver and in 1960 moved to the University of Wisconsin. He became the Alfred Sloan Professor of Biology and Chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he continues to work.

Khorana was awarded the 1968 Nobel Prize in Medicine (together with Robert W. Holley and Marshall Warren Nirenberg) for work on the interpretation of the genetic code and its function in protein synthesis.

Khorana's synthetic RNA approach

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Ribonucleic acid (RNA) with two repeating units (UCUCUCU → UCU CUC UCU) produced two alternating amino acids. This, combined with the Nirenberg and Leder experiment, showed that UCU codes for Serine and CUC codes for Leucine.

RNAs with three repeating units (UACUACUA → UAC UAC UAC, or ACU ACU ACU, or CUA CUA CUA) produced three different strings of amino acids.

RNAs with four repeating units including UAG, UAA, or UGA, produced only dipeptides and tripeptides thus revealing that UAG, UAA and UGA are stop codons.

With this, Dr. Khorana and his team had established that the mother of all codes, the biological language common to all living organisms, is spelled out in three-letter words: each set of three nucleotides codes for a specific amino acid. Their Nobel lecture was delivered on December 12, 1968. Dr. Khorana was also the first to synthesize oligonucleotides, that is, strings of nucleotides. These custom designed pieces of artificial genes are widely used in biology labs for sequencing, cloning and engineering new plants and animals. This invention of Dr. Khorana has become automated and commercialized so that anyone now can order a synthetic gene from any of a number of companies-- one merely needs to fax the genetic sequence to one of the companies to receive an oligonucliotide with the desired sequence.

External link

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• Biography - Nobelprize.org

University of Liverpool people | 1922 births | Living people | Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine winners | Indian biologists | Indian Americans | Indian Nobel Laureates | Members and associates of the US National Academy of Sciences | Members of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences | National Medal of Science recipients | Ravians

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