{"id":8793,"date":"2022-04-11T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-04-11T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/current_affairs\/uncategorized\/11-04-2022\/har-gobind-khorana\/"},"modified":"2025-07-31T13:22:22","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T07:52:22","slug":"har-gobind-khorana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/11-04-2022\/har-gobind-khorana","title":{"rendered":"Har Gobind Khorana"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong><u>In News<\/u><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/h2>\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;\">The <\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>year 2022<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"> marks the <\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>100th birthday of Nobel Prize<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">-winning chemist <\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Har Gobind Khorana.<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><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><\/h2>\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:<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u00a0 He 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 <\/span><\/span><\/span><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/blog\/biomolecules\/\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Molecular Mechanisms<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/strong><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"> 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;\">His studies were <\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>concerned primarily with the structure and function of rhodopsin<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">, a light-sensitive protein found in the retina of the vertebrate eye.<\/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 <\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>pigmentosa<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">, 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 <\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>1968 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine <\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">with Marshall W. Nirenberg and Robert W. Holley for research that helped to show how the nucleotides in nucleic acids, 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 <\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award (1968)<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"> 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<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;\"><strong>Source:<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><a style=\"text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/scroll.in\/article\/1021231\/remembering-har-gobind-khorana-the-chemist-who-overcame-poverty-to-win-the-nobel-prize\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #1155cc;\"><strong><u> Scroll<\/u><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In News The year 2022 marks the 100th birthday of Nobel Prize-winning chemist Har Gobind Khorana. 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 the University [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[26,33],"class_list":["post-8793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs","tag-gs-3","tag-science-technology"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8793","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\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8793\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}