1922-

Indian-born American Organic Chemist and Biochemist

In 1968 Har Gobind Khorana shared the Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology with Robert W. Holley (1922-1993) and Marshall W. Nirenberg (1927- ) "for their interpretation of the genetic code and its function in protein synthesis." As a result of their independent, but interrelated nucleic acid researches, they were able to break the genetic code and prove that the universal language of nucleic acids is spelled out in three-letter words. Each codon, or triplet, codes for a specific amino acid. Specifically designed oligonucleotides, which can be thought of as artificial genes, became essential tools in research and biotechnology for sequencing, cloning, and bioengineering new plants and animals.

Khorana was the youngest of five children born to Hindu parents in Raipur, a village of about 100 people in Punjab, India, which is now part of West Pakistan. His father, who...