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Marshall W. Nirenberg. The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1968 was awarded jointly to Robert W. Holley, Har Gobind Khorana and Marshall W. Nirenberg "for their interpretation of the genetic code and its function in protein synthesis". MLA style: The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1968.
shared by 3 scientists, Robert W. Holley, Har Gobind Khorana (1922- ), and Marshall W. Nirenberg (1927- ), for research that helped to explain how genetic compo-nents of the cell nucleus control the synthesis of proteins. Holley was the first scientist to determine exactly the inter-nal structure of a strand of one of the nucleic acids that
Robert William Holley (January 28, 1922; Urbana, Illinois – February 11, 1993) was an American biochemist. He shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine , which he won for describing the structures for alanine transfer RNA , linking DNA and protein synthesis .
The discovery of tRNA in the late 1950's provided critical insight into a genetic machinery when little was known about the central dogma of molecular biology. In 1965, Robert Holley determined the first nucleotide sequence of alanine transfer RNA (tRNA(Ala)) which earned him the 1968 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
Holley’s work represents the first determination of the complete chemical structure of a biologically active nucleic acid. The interpretation of the genetic code and the elucidation of its function are the highlights of the last 20 years’ explosive evolution of molecular biology which has led to an understanding of the details of the mechanism of inheritance.
Robert W. Holley was a leader in the field of biochemistry. He noticed that RNA played a role in the amino acid activation reaction that occurs before protein synthesis. Using countercurrent distribution he separated individual transfer RNA’s (tRNA)— the link between DNA and protein synthesis –which match up to each of the twenty two amino acids that make up all proteins.
Jul 7, 2004 · Robert Holley was a chemist at Cornell University, but learned about protein synthesis during a sabbatical year at Caltech in California. He discovered the special type of nucleic acid called transfer RNA, or tRNA for short. In 1965 Holley was able to work out its exact structure.
