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DNA's forgotten hero
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DNA’s forgotten hero It’s time to savour a little known story at the heart of genetics, says Matthew Cobb
IN 1968, Marshall Nirenberg jointly won the Nobel prize in physiology or medicine for his decisive contribution to cracking the genetic code. Eight years earlier, Nirenberg and biochemist Heinrich Matthaei had used an artificial string of RNA featuring only the base uracil (U) to make the amino acid phenylalanine. The first word in the genetic code had been read: UUU codes for phenylalanine. The way the discovery emerged is the stuff of legend. In August 1961, at the International Congress of Biochemistry in Moscow, Russia, the little-known Nirenberg gave a talk to a couple of dozen delegates, who were amazed. Word spread. The next day, Francis Crick rejigged the schedule to allow Nirenberg to speak to hundreds of leading researchers. The audience, says Crick, was “electrified”. In one bombshell experiment, Nirenberg and Matthaei had shown the world how to crack the code. Over the following six years, Nirenberg played a key role in identifying the function of all 64 three-letter words, or codons, in our DNA. In this first biography of Nirenberg, Franklin Portugal, who worked in his lab, tries to unravel how the man went from being an average student studying caddis Marshall Nirenberg came from nowhere to win a key scientific race 46 | NewScientist | 2 May 2015
flies to a molecular biologist that each codon had three letters. taking on such greats as Crick, But Nirenberg was nearly swept Sydney Brenner and James away by the flood, as biochemist Watson, and beating them at Severo Ochoa in New York moved their own game. into the field and rapidly churned Science historians are wary out papers, some of which did not of “great men” explanations, even cite Nirenberg and Matthaei. whereas scientists writing history Nirenberg had the last laugh. tend to revel in individuals. With He worked out complex Nirenberg, the two converge: he biochemical procedures for may have been in the right place identifying the exact nature of the at the right time, but he also had a RNA codons that the cell uses to unique insight into how to crack “In one bombshell the genetic code. experiment, Nirenberg This crucial discovery opened and Matthaei had shown the floodgates: within a few how to crack the code” months, Crick had demonstrated
Fritz Goro/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
The Least Likely Man: Marshall Nirenberg and the discovery of the genetic code by Franklin H. Portugal, MIT Press, $27.95/£19.95
introduce a particular amino acid into a protein, and Ochoa’s lab eventually bowed out of the race. Portugal’s slim biography understandably concentrates on the years 1958 to 1967, using a unique legacy: dozens of lab diaries. In these, Nirenberg recorded ideas for experiments and jotted down exhortations to himself to work harder, and to his experiments simply to work. Some of the diaries were cited by leading historian Lily Kay in her book Who Wrote the Book of Life? Portugal’s selection overlaps Kay’s, but neither satisfactorily explains why Nirenberg became fascinated by genetic code, nor what it was in his intellect and training that let him see a solution so many others missed. In one of the book’s other threads, Portugal claims that Crick ignored Nirenberg’s alleged primacy in discovering messenger RNA, and effectively bullied him into sharing unpublished data. In fact, Crick was extremely generous to the brilliant outsider. For example, he devoted the whole of a 1962 BBC lecture to Nirenberg. And he ended a Scientific American article in March of that year thus: “We are coming to the end of an era in molecular biology. If the DNA structure was the end of the beginning, the discovery of Nirenberg and Matthaei is the beginning of the end.” Whatever the case, Nirenberg’s brilliant contribution deserves to be more widely known. Portugal’s fascinating book can only help. n Matthew Cobb’s book Life’s Greatest Secret: The race to crack the genetic code is published next month
DNA’s forgotten hero It’s time to savour a little known story at the heart of genetics, says Matthew Cobb
IN 1968, Marshall Nirenberg jointly won the Nobel prize in physiology or medicine for his decisive contribution to cracking the genetic code. Eight years earlier, Nirenberg and biochemist Heinrich Matthaei had used an artificial string of RNA featuring only the base uracil (U) to make the amino acid phenylalanine. The first word in the genetic code had been read: UUU codes for phenylalanine. The way the discovery emerged is the stuff of legend. In August 1961, at the International Congress of Biochemistry in Moscow, Russia, the little-known Nirenberg gave a talk to a couple of dozen delegates, who were amazed. Word spread. The next day, Francis Crick rejigged the schedule to allow Nirenberg to speak to hundreds of leading researchers. The audience, says Crick, was “electrified”. In one bombshell experiment, Nirenberg and Matthaei had shown the world how to crack the code. Over the following six years, Nirenberg played a key role in identifying the function of all 64 three-letter words, or codons, in our DNA. In this first biography of Nirenberg, Franklin Portugal, who worked in his lab, tries to unravel how the man went from being an average student studying caddis Marshall Nirenberg came from nowhere to win a key scientific race 46 | NewScientist | 2 May 2015
flies to a molecular biologist that each codon had three letters. taking on such greats as Crick, But Nirenberg was nearly swept Sydney Brenner and James away by the flood, as biochemist Watson, and beating them at Severo Ochoa in New York moved their own game. into the field and rapidly churned Science historians are wary out papers, some of which did not of “great men” explanations, even cite Nirenberg and Matthaei. whereas scientists writing history Nirenberg had the last laugh. tend to revel in individuals. With He worked out complex Nirenberg, the two converge: he biochemical procedures for may have been in the right place identifying the exact nature of the at the right time, but he also had a RNA codons that the cell uses to unique insight into how to crack “In one bombshell the genetic code. experiment, Nirenberg This crucial discovery opened and Matthaei had shown the floodgates: within a few how to crack the code” months, Crick had demonstrated
Fritz Goro/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
The Least Likely Man: Marshall Nirenberg and the discovery of the genetic code by Franklin H. Portugal, MIT Press, $27.95/£19.95
introduce a particular amino acid into a protein, and Ochoa’s lab eventually bowed out of the race. Portugal’s slim biography understandably concentrates on the years 1958 to 1967, using a unique legacy: dozens of lab diaries. In these, Nirenberg recorded ideas for experiments and jotted down exhortations to himself to work harder, and to his experiments simply to work. Some of the diaries were cited by leading historian Lily Kay in her book Who Wrote the Book of Life? Portugal’s selection overlaps Kay’s, but neither satisfactorily explains why Nirenberg became fascinated by genetic code, nor what it was in his intellect and training that let him see a solution so many others missed. In one of the book’s other threads, Portugal claims that Crick ignored Nirenberg’s alleged primacy in discovering messenger RNA, and effectively bullied him into sharing unpublished data. In fact, Crick was extremely generous to the brilliant outsider. For example, he devoted the whole of a 1962 BBC lecture to Nirenberg. And he ended a Scientific American article in March of that year thus: “We are coming to the end of an era in molecular biology. If the DNA structure was the end of the beginning, the discovery of Nirenberg and Matthaei is the beginning of the end.” Whatever the case, Nirenberg’s brilliant contribution deserves to be more widely known. Portugal’s fascinating book can only help. n Matthew Cobb’s book Life’s Greatest Secret: The race to crack the genetic code is published next month