{"id":11156,"date":"2022-01-11T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-01-11T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/current_affairs\/uncategorized\/11-01-2022\/har-gobind-khorana-2\/"},"modified":"2025-07-29T16:28:31","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T10:58:31","slug":"har-gobind-khorana-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/11-01-2022\/har-gobind-khorana-2","title":{"rendered":"Har Gobind Khorana"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong><u>In News\u00a0<\/u><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: disc;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Recently, the <\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>100th birth anniversary<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"> of the biochemist and chemical biologist Har Gobind Khorana was observed.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong><u>About Har Gobind Khorana<\/u><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: disc;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Born<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">: January 9, 1922, Raipur, India [now Raipur, Pakistan]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: disc;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Early Life and Education:\u00a0 <\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">He<\/span><\/span><\/span> <span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">was born into a poor family and attended the University of Punjab at Lahore, India (now in Pakistan), and the University of Liverpool, England, on government scholarships.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: disc;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Research and Contribution: <\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">He began research on nucleic acids during a fellowship at the University of Cambridge (1951) under Sir Alexander Todd.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: circle;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">He made another contribution to genetics in 1970 when he and his research team were able to synthesize the first artificial copy of a yeast gene.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: circle;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">His later research explored the molecular mechanisms underlying the cell signalling pathways of vision in vertebrates.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: circle;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u00a0His studies were concerned primarily with the structure and function of rhodopsin, a light-sensitive protein found in the retina of the vertebrate eye.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: circle;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">He also investigated mutations in rhodopsin that are associated with retinitis pigmentosa, which causes night blindness.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: disc;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Awards: <\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">He shared the 1<\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>968 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine with Marshall W. Nirenberg and Robert W. Holley<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"> for research that helped to show <\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>how the nucleotides in nucleic acids<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">, which carry the genetic code of the cell, control the cell\u2019s synthesis of proteins.<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: circle;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">In addition to the Nobel Prize, Khorana received the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award (1968) and the National Medal of Science (1987).<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: circle;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The Indian government awarded Khorana the Padma Vibhushan in 1969.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: disc;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Death<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">: November 9, 2011, Concord, Massachusetts, U.S.)<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Source:<\/span><\/span><\/span><a style=\"text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/thewire.in\/culture\/har-gobind-khorana-at-100-re-evaluating-a-shared-heritage-of-the-pioneer-of-molecular-biology\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #1155cc;\"><u> The Wire<\/u><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In News\u00a0 Recently, the 100th birth anniversary of the biochemist and chemical biologist Har Gobind Khorana was observed. About Har Gobind Khorana Born: January 9, 1922, Raipur, India [now Raipur, Pakistan] Early Life and Education:\u00a0 He was born into a poor family and attended the University of Punjab at Lahore, India (now in Pakistan), and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11157,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[26,33],"class_list":["post-11156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-affairs","tag-gs-3","tag-science-technology"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2023\/07\/2887462Screenshot_6.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11156"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11156\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49550,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11156\/revisions\/49550"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}