Marshall Warren Nirenberg

Marshall Warren Nirenberg was an American biochemist who helped decipher how nucleotide sequences in messenger RNA specify amino acids. He shared the 1968 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Cell-free protein synthesis: A laboratory method that produces proteins using cellular extracts outside intact cells. Nirenberg used extracts from Escherichia coli to test how synthetic RNA directed protein synthesis.
National Institutes of Health: A United States government agency that conducts and funds biomedical research. Nirenberg carried out his genetic-code research at the NIH in Bethesda.
Har Gobind Khorana: An Indian-American biochemist who synthesized defined nucleic acids and helped decipher the genetic code. Khorana’s complementary methods helped complete codon assignments alongside Nirenberg’s work.
Messenger RNA: A molecule that carries genetic information from DNA to ribosomes for protein synthesis. Synthetic messenger RNA was the experimental instruction Nirenberg used to test codon meanings.
Molecular biology: The study of biological processes through interactions among DNA, RNA, proteins, and other molecules. Nirenberg’s results helped turn gene expression into a testable molecular mechanism.
Poly-U experiment: A 1961 experiment showing that synthetic RNA made entirely of uracil directs the production of phenylalanine chains. This experiment established that the RNA triplet UUU specifies phenylalanine.
Marshall W. Nirenberg’s 1961 paper: A paper reporting that polyuridylic acid directs the formation of a polypeptide containing phenylalanine. Its result supplied the first clear experimental assignment of an RNA codon.
Robert W. Holley: An American biochemist who determined the structure of transfer RNA and shared the 1968 Nobel Prize. Holley’s tRNA research clarified how amino acids are brought to the protein-making machinery.
Protein biosynthesis: The cellular process of producing proteins from genetic instructions and amino acids. Nirenberg’s findings explained how RNA instructions guide this process.
Central dogma of molecular biology: A framework describing the flow of sequence information from nucleic acids to proteins. The genetic code supplied the translation rules within this information-flow framework.

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