Nirenberg, who solved genetic code, dies

In solving the genetic code, Nirenberg also described how genetic information in DNA is translated into proteins, the working parts of living cells, the Nobel Foundation said in awarding the 1968 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to Nirenberg and two other researchers.

The code lies at the basis of life, and his discovery is widely viewed as a turning point in the history of biology.

His 1961 achievement was even more remarkable because Nirenberg was a 34-year-old National Institutes of Health geneticist at the time, unknown in the world of biology and genetics, The New York Times observed.

Working with colleague Johann Heinrich Matthaei, Nirenberg also discovered how RNA, or ribonucleic acid, transmits the "messages" encoded in DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, and directs how amino acids combine to make proteins.
RNA is central to protein synthesis. DNA carries the genetic code and is the primary genetic material in all living organisms.

"I literally jumped for joy" at the discovery, he told an interviewer at a meeting of Nobel laureates in Lindau, Germany, in June 2005.

"We found that all species, all forms of life on this planet, use the same ... molecular language. You can look at trees, flowers, squirrels, birds and you know that we're all related."

The New York native, who died last Friday, grew up in Orlando, Fla. After earning a doctorate at the University of Michigan, he started work at the NIH, where he spent the rest of his career.

He is survived by his wife, Columbia University Professor Myrna Weissman, a sister and four stepchildren. His first wife, Perola Zaltzman Nirenberg, died in 2001.

Copyright 2010 by United Press International.