What did Nirenberg and Matthaei discover about DNA?

Nirenberg and Matthaei quickly realized that this was the messenger that they had been looking for. Their experiments proved that “messenger RNA,” which transcribes genetic information from DNA, directs protein synthesis.

When did Marshall Nirenberg break the genetic code?

1961
1961 | Marshall Nirenberg cracks the genetic code for protein synthesis | Genome: Unlocking Life’s Code.

What is Marshall Nirenberg known for?

Marshall Warren Nirenberg, (born April 10, 1927, New York, N.Y., U.S.—died Jan. 15, 2010, New York), American biochemist and corecipient, with Robert William Holley and Har Gobind Khorana, of the 1968 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. He was cited for his role in deciphering the genetic code.

When did Marshall Nirenberg crack the genetic code?

Marshall Nirenberg (1927-) cracks the genetic code. The basic chemical pathways by which DNA directs synthesis of proteins were clarified by about 1960. But the genetic code—the little language encrypted in molecules of DNA—remained a mystery.

When was Marshall Nirenberg born and when did he die?

Marshall Warren Nirenberg, (born April 10, 1927, New York, N.Y., U.S.—died Jan. 15, 2010, New York), American biochemist and corecipient, with Robert William Holley and Har Gobind Khorana, of the 1968 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine.

What did Marshall Nirenberg do for the NIH?

Khorana also worked on cracking the genetic code; Holley was the first to sequence a tRNA and determine its structure. Nirenberg’s later research focused on the development of the nervous system of Drosophila melanogaster. He ran a lab in the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the NIH.

When did Marshall Nirenberg discover the triplet sequence?

In 1961 Marshall Nirenberg, a young biochemist at the National Institute of Arthritic and Metabolic Diseases, discovered the first “triplet”—a sequence of three bases of DNA that codes for one of the twenty amino acids that serve as the building blocks of proteins. Subsequently, within five years, the entire genetic code was deciphered.