The scientist who built the world’s first synthetic gene.
Dr. Khorana was an Indian-American biochemist who obtained his B.S. (1943) and M.S. (1945) degrees from Punjab University and went on to earn his doctorate in organic chemistry at the University of Liverpool (1948). After his post-doctoral work, he accepted a position at the Institute for Enzyme Research at UW-Madison. Khorana became known as the first scientist to chemically synthesize oligonucleotides, the world’s first synthetic gene. He was also the first scientist to completely synthesize a functional gene outside a living organism (1972), which led to the development of processes such as PCR in the future. Among many awards, Khorana was awarded the 1968 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine and the National Medal of Science in 1987.