- Person
- Marshall Nirenberg
- Lived
- 1927–2010
- Field
- Biochemistry, genetics
- From
- American
The story
Having helped solve the genetic code, Marshall Nirenberg switched fields in the late 1960s to study the nervous system. He saw a deep parallel: DNA processes genetic information and the brain processes sensory and mental information, and they are the only two biological systems built to receive, store and relay information. He later called this period one of the happiest of his life, though he also likened entering neurobiology to walking up to your neck in a swamp.
One practical problem stood in the way. Mature neurons no longer divide, so they are hard to grow and study in the laboratory. Nirenberg turned to neuroblastoma, a cancer of developing nerve cells that most often strikes infants and young children. At the time scientists studied it only to fight the disease. Nirenberg realised that the tumour cells might keep the properties of immature neurons while multiplying freely, making them a model for how nerve cells develop and make neurotransmitters.
He had never done tissue culture before. The NIH neurophysiologist Phillip Nelson taught him the methods, and in return Nirenberg taught Nelson the molecular biology the work required. Together they cloned tumour cells and selected lines with particular neural properties: how fast the cells grew, how sensitive they were to morphine, or which neurotransmitter they made. They built a cell bank to store the different strains. The project was among the first in which neurobiologists relied on tissue culture, an approach that now pervades the field.
The cell lines quickly proved their value. With the postdoctoral fellow Xandra Breakefield, Nirenberg developed a way to classify the lines by the neurotransmitters they produced. With Werner Klee he used a line rich in morphine receptors to explain the molecular basis of opiate tolerance and withdrawal. By 1975 his team was using the cells to analyse neuromuscular disorders.
For decades Nirenberg's laboratory supplied samples of these lines to scientists all over the world, and he received countless requests from leading universities. Children's hospitals used his cultures to study neuromuscular connections, hormone regulation and nerve growth, and patients and hospitals wrote to him in hope of progress against cancer.
The cell bank gave researchers a convenient, consistent model of nerve cells at a time when such tools were scarce, and it helped make cultured cells a standard tool of modern neuroscience.
Why it matters
Nirenberg's cell lines helped researchers everywhere study how nerve cells work, speeding progress in neuroscience and drug research.
About Marshall Nirenberg
NIH biochemist who in 1961 read the first word of the genetic code, UUU for phenylalanine, then led the race to decipher all of it, sharing the 1968 Nobel Prize in Medicine.
More about Marshall Nirenberg
- Nirenberg's lab found genes that shape the nervous systemIn the late 1980s Marshall Nirenberg's laboratory discovered four new homeobox genes in fruit flies, NK-1 to NK-4, which help control nervous system development.
- Nirenberg uncovered a molecular basis of opiate withdrawalIn the early 1970s Marshall Nirenberg and Werner Klee showed how morphine suppresses a nerve-cell enzyme and how cells compensate, explaining tolerance and withdrawal.
- Nirenberg and Leder found how to read codon orderIn 1964 and 1965 Marshall Nirenberg's lab, with postdoc Philip Leder, devised a filter-binding method that revealed the exact letter order of genetic code words.
- NIH colleagues rallied to help Nirenberg crack the codeIn the 1961–62 'coding race' against Severo Ochoa's large lab, many NIH scientists set aside their own work to help Marshall Nirenberg decipher the genetic code.
- Marshall Nirenberg read the first word of the genetic codeAt 3 a.m. on 27 May 1961, Marshall Nirenberg's NIH experiment showed that the RNA 'word' UUU codes for phenylalanine, the first codon ever deciphered.
- Nirenberg warned society to prepare for genetic engineeringIn a 1967 Science editorial, Marshall Nirenberg predicted humans would one day program cells and urged society to prepare to use that power wisely.
- Nirenberg spoke up for persecuted scientists and peaceMarshall Nirenberg protested Brazil's 1969 purge of scientists, backed appeals against hunger and nuclear escalation, and urged ratification of the Chemical Weapons Convention.
Sources
- Neuroblastoma Research, 1967–1976 NLM Profiles in Science
- From Neuroblastoma to Homeobox Genes, 1976–1992 NLM Profiles in Science
- Transition to Neurobiology, 1965-1969 U.S. National Library of Medicine
Another act of tikkun olam. This is part of tikkun olam, the Jewish idea of repairing the world, and every one of us can add to it.