The biochemist responsible for discovering an essential function of our DNA — and for constructing the first synthetic gene — is being honoured by Google with a Doodle in many parts of the world.
Har Gobind Khorana would be 96-years-old Tuesday, and has been honoured within the scientific community in the past with some of the most prestigious awards available.
Here’s what you need to know about Mr Khorana’s life and accomplishments.
His passion for science started when he was a young boy in India. Mr Khorana, born in 1922, grew up the youngest of five children with a father who tried to foster a love of learning in his children. He helped them learn to read and write, which wasn’t common in the village where Mr Khorana grew up.
From those humble beginnings, he was boosted by scholarships to receive a very advanced degree. Mr Khorana received his bachelors in organic chemistry in 1948. Throughout his early days in education, he was supported by scholarships that helped him to pursue his passions.
He won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1968. That award was given to Mr Khorana alongside two other researchers. Mr Khorana was based at the University of Wisconsin at the time, but had previously conducted research at universities in Canada, Switzerland, and England.
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That award was given for discovering that the order of nucleotides in DNA determines which amino acids are built. Nucleotides are the subunits of DNA or RNA, and consist of bases made of nitrogen. There are four types of nucleotides for each DNA, and RNA, an the order in which they are put connected — forming the double helix — is important for determining which types of proteins the cells create. Proteins are responsible for basic form and functions.
He received more awards than just the Nobel Prize. Mr Khorana accumulated a host of awards during his lifetime, and was well respected in his field of research. Among those other awards was the National Medal of Science.
Hailed for constructing the first synthetic gene, Nobel Prize winner Har Gobind Khorana would have been 96 on Tuesday, January 9 - that's the date of birth in his documents, although the exact date remains uncertain.
In the Indian-American scientist's honour, Google is changing its logo in 13 countries to a doodle - or illustration - of him and his DNA work.
This is his story:
Village origin
Khorana was born in a small village of about 100 residents in Raipur. He was a member of practically the only literate family in his village - Khorana's father taught his five children to read and write.
Having advanced his education through scholarships , Khorana received his Bachelor's degree in 1943, and his Master's in 1945 at the Punjab University in Lahore.
In 1948, he completed his PhD after being awarded a scholarship by the Indian government to pursue doctoral studies at the University of Liverpool in the UK.
He then went to the Swiss city of Zurich to work with Professor Vladimir Prelog for one year. In Khorana's biography, Prelog is credited for moulding "immeasurably his thought and philosophy towards science, work, and effort".
Married to Swiss Esther Elizabeth Sibler, Khorana's biography praised Sibler for bringing a "consistent sense of purpose ... at a time when [ Har ] Khorana felt out of place everywhere and at home nowhere".
Freedom
A job offer in 1952 took Khorana to the University of British Columbia in Canada , where he initiated his Nobel Prize-winning work. During his time there he was offered "all the freedom in the world" to do his own research, according to Gordon M Shrum, a Canadian scientist in British Columbia.
At the University of British Columbia, Khorana and a group of scientists began to work in the field of biology. Khorana was an expert on the chemical synthesis of proteins and nucleic acids.
In 1960, he moved to the US , where started working at the University of Wisconsin. He was granted American citizenship in 1966.
Two years later, Khorana, Robert W Holley and Marshall W Nirenberg were awarded jointly the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine "for their interpretation of the genetic code and its function in protein synthesis".
But this was not his only accolade. In 1972, Khorana was also recognised for the construction of the first artificial gene, while four years later he announced that he had gotten an artificial gene to function within a bacterial cell.
Among his several recognitions, Khorana also received the Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research and the National Medal of Science.
Khorana died on November 9, 2011. His death was announced by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he was a professor emeritus. He was survived by his children, Julia and Dave.
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NEW DELHI: Google today honoured with a doodle Har Gobind Khorana , the Indian man who won a Nobel prize for decoding humans' DNA Khorana's birth anniversary is today; he would have been 96 years old. He died in November 2011.Khorana won the 'Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine' in 1968 along with colleagues Marshall W. Nirenberg and Robert W. Holley. The India-born scientist also constructed the world's first synthetic gene.The scientist went to high school in Multan, which is now in Pakistan. He then studied at the Punjab University in Lahore - also now in Pakistan - from where he earned a master's degree in science, according to the official web site of the Nobel Prize.Khorana lived in India until 1945, when a government fellowship made it possible for him to go to England, where he studied for a PhD degree at the University of Liverpool. In 1948-1949, he spent a postdoctoral year in Zurich in Switzerland.Through his career, Khorana also conducted research at universities in England, Switzerland, and Canada, and it was at the University of Wisconsin that he and two fellow researchers received the Nobel Prize in 1968.
