Dr. Har Gobind Khorana was a pioneering Indian-American biochemist whose transformative research fundamentally reshaped molecular biology and genetics. Born on January 9, 1922 in Raipur, India (now Pakistan), he overcame economic challenges to pursue advanced scientific education through scholarships that enabled his studies abroad. He earned his PhD in organic chemistry from the University of Liverpool and subsequently conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Cambridge under Professor A. R. Todd. Khorana joined the University of Wisconsin-Madison faculty in 1960 and later became the Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Biology and Chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a position he held until transitioning to emeritus status in 2007. He passed away on November 9, 2011 in Concord, Massachusetts, leaving behind an enduring scientific legacy that continues to influence contemporary research.
Khorana's most celebrated achievement was deciphering the genetic code, for which he shared the 1968 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Marshall W. Nirenberg and Robert W. Holley. His innovative approach involved building different RNA chains with enzymatic methods to determine how nucleotide sequences specify amino acids in protein synthesis, ultimately revealing the function of stop codons including UAG, UAA, and UGA. As the first scientist to chemically synthesize oligonucleotides, he created the world's first synthetic gene in the 1970s, demonstrating its functionality in bacteria by 1979. This groundbreaking work established the foundation for modern genetic engineering and biotechnology, enabling subsequent advances in recombinant protein production and genome editing techniques. His prolific research career resulted in more than five hundred scholarly publications that detailed critical methodologies for synthesizing artificial genes, which became indispensable tools in twenty-first century biotechnology.
Khorana's methodologies for synthesizing artificial genes became foundational to the field of synthetic biology, directly enabling the development of recombinant DNA technology that revolutionized medicine and industrial applications. His research provided critical chemical frameworks that subsequent scientists referenced while advancing genome editing with the CRISPR/Cas9 system, demonstrating the enduring relevance of his contributions across generations of molecular biologists. Recognized with numerous prestigious honors including the National Medal of Science in 1987 and the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award in 1968, Khorana's work transcended disciplinary boundaries to shape modern biopharmaceutical development. His legacy extends beyond scientific achievement to include his role as a mentor whose humility and intellectual rigor inspired generations of researchers to explore the fundamental mechanisms of life. Today, Khorana's discoveries remain integral to our understanding of genetic processes and continue to catalyze innovation in biomedical research worldwide, cementing his status as a towering figure in the history of molecular biology.
