French biologist Jacques Lucien Monod and his colleagues demonstrated the process by which messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) carries instructions for protein synthesis from deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) in the cell nucleus out to the ribosomes in the cytoplasm, where the instructions are carried out.

Jacques Monod was born in Paris, on February 9, 1910. In 1928, Monod began his study of the natural sciences at the University of Paris, Sorbonne where he went on to receive a B.S. from the Faculte des Sciences in 1931. Although he stayed on at the university for further studies, Monod developed further scientific grounding during excursions to the nearby Roscoff marine biology station.

While working at the Roscoff station, Monod met André Lwoff, who introduced him to the potentials of microbiology and microbial nutrition that became the focus of Monod's early research. Two other scientists working at Roscoff station, Boris Ephrussi and Louis Rapkine, taught...