Nirenberg, Marshall Warren (1927-2010), an American biochemist, explained how genes determine the function of cells. Nirenberg showed that each codon (sequence of three chemical units in genetic material) forms the arrangement for a specific amino acid when proteins are produced. In 1962, he discovered the code for one amino acid. He and others eventually determined the code for the 20 amino acids involved in protein production. See Amino acid; Cell (The genetic code) . Nirenberg won the 1968 Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine. He shared the prize with another American biochemist, Robert W. Holley, and with H. Gobind Khorana, an Indian-born chemist.
Nirenberg was born in New York City on April 10, 1927. In 1948, he graduated from the University of Florida. In 1957, he received a doctorate from the University of Michigan. He then joined the staff of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. In 1962, he joined the National Heart Institute, later the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI). He did research in biochemistry at NHLBI until his death on Jan. 15, 2010.
