As the world was buried in discussion about the Covid vaccines, we failed to realize that it would have hardly been a topic of conversation if not for Dr. Har Gobind Khorana - a scientist whose work on genetic code has benefited us greatly during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Dr.Khorana starts his journey in the quaint little town of Raipur. He went on to be a Nobel laureate and a professor at MIT- The Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He started at a local school and earned his Bachelor’s and Master’s degree from Punjab University in Lahore and later, a Ph.D. in England along with a brief postdoctoral program in Switzerland. He expanded his frontiers in the research of biochemistry at The University of Cambridge. His educational accolades are truly commendable.
In 1952, he established his lab in Vancouver, Canada, and started his ground-breaking work on phosphate esters and nucleic acids. However, it was only eight years later in the University of Wisconsin’s Institute of Enzyme Research did he crack the genetic code, finding out that the genetic code of a DNA predisposes protein synthesis. This determines how a cell functions. It was this discovery that led him to win his Nobel Prize in 1968.
He did not stop after becoming a Nobel laureate he did much more incredible work and became the first person to synthesize a gene two years later. His work was path-breaking and even after he retired from being a professor at MIT, he continued his research relentlessly. He passed away on the 9th of November 2011 in Massachusetts.
Without his research and extensive work related to genes, we would have had a very hard time trying to find a solution to the COVID - 19 pandemic. His work is truly brilliant and we must appreciate his contribution to science.
Thank you for the wonderful article. Well written and compile. It's a honour to have such great personalities in our society.