Who was Har Gobind Khorana? Everything You Need to Know

Quick Facts

Died At Age: 89

Family:

Spouse/Ex-: Esther Elizabeth Sibler

children: Dave Roy, Emily Anne, Julia Elizabeth

Born Country: United States

Biochemists American Men

Died on: November 9, 2011

place of death: Concord, Massachusetts, U.S.

discoveries/inventions: Demonstrated How Genetic Information Is Translated Into Proteins,

More Facts

awards: Nobel Prize in Medicine (1968)

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Childhood & Early Life

He was born as the youngest child to Hindu parents in a village in West Punjab. He had three elder brothers and one sister. His father worked as the village “patwari” or taxation officer.

His family was poor but his father insisted on providing him a good education. Early on he went to a local school where he was educated under a tree by a village teacher; his father also taught him at home. His family was in fact the only literate one in the whole village.

He went to the D.A.V High School in Multan where he was greatly influenced by his teacher, Ratan Lal. He earned a scholarship to study chemistry at the Punjab University, Lahore.

He completed his B.Sc in 1943 and M.Sc in 1945. A brilliant student, he was awarded a scholarship by the Government of India to study at the University of Liverpool.

He went to England where he worked for a Ph.D degree at the University of Liverpool under the supervision of Roger J.S. Beer. It was the first time he had traveled outside India and this experience was his introduction to Western culture. He earned his Ph.D in 1948.

He continued his post doctoral studies in Zurich at the Eidgenossische Technische Hochschule with Professor Vladimir Prelog. His professor deeply influenced his thoughts and philosophy towards science.

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Career

He received a job offer from Dr. Gordon M Shrum of the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, in 1952. He accepted even though the British Columbia Research Council did not offer many facilities for research.

Dr. Shrum was a very inspiring man and Khorana could engage in whatever research he wanted to conduct under him. Along with a group of other researchers, he began to work in the field of phosphate esters and nucleic acids.

During the 1960s he delved deeper into his experiments in nucleic acids found in RNA, a chemical that translates the genetic information contained in DNA. RNA is composed of four chemical bases represented by the letters A, C, U, and G.

Using chemical synthesis to combine the chemical bases, Khorana deduced that the code for serine was UCU and for leucine it was CUC. He showed that the genetic code consisted of 64 distinct three-letter words.

Biochemist Marshall W. Nirenberg had independently been working on genetics and Khorana confirmed the former’s findings that four different types of nucleotides are arranged on the spiral staircase of the DNA molecule.

He proved that the nucleotide code is transmitted in groups of three—called codons—to the cells. Some codons are responsible for signaling to the cells to start or stop the manufacture of proteins.

He became the Alfred Sloan Professor of Biology and Chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1970 and remained there till his retirement in 2007.

He was successful in constructing the first ever artificial gene in 1972. A few years later he made the artificial gene function in a bacteria cell. Genetic engineering has been made possible only due to the ability to synthesize DNA.

During his later years he experimented on the molecular mechanisms underlying the cell signaling pathways of vision in vertebrates. He primarily studied the structure and function of rhodospin, a light sensitive protein found in the eye.

Major Works

Har Gobind Khorana was a world renowned biochemist famous for his work in the field of genetics and DNA. He was the first person to demonstrate the role of nucleotides in protein synthesis.

Awards & Achievements

In 1968 the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded jointly to Har Gobind Khorana, Robert W. Holley, and Marshall W. Nirenberg "for their interpretation of the genetic code and its function in protein synthesis".

Personal Life & Legacy

He married Esther Elizabeth Sibler who was of Swiss origin in 1952. The couple had three children. Unfortunately one of their daughters died in 1979. They remained happily married till Esther’s death.

He lived a long life and died of natural causes in 2011 at the age of 89.

Har Gobind Khorana Biography