Sydney Brenner was a South African biologist who is best known for his contributions in elucidating the genetic code. He was born in 1927 and took his last breath in 2019. For his exceptional work, he also received the 2002 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, which he shared with H. Robert Horvitz and John Sulston. Brenner was also the Senior Distinguished Fellow of the Crick-Jacobs Center at the Salk Institute of Biological Sciences.
One of his many renowned discoveries, Brenner established the existence of messenger RNA and showed how the amino acids order in proteins can be determined. Starting his research in 1965, he also started conducting the initial work with the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans, which eventually won him the Nobel Prize.
Brenner’s research work on genetic code
During this research, Brenner laid the groundwork to create C. elegans, which is a small, transparent nematode (worm). This became a major model organism for research in neurobiology, genetics, and developmental biology.
He worked alongside George Pieczenik to create the first computer matrix analysis of nucleic acids with the aid of TRAC computer language. Brenner continued to use this language for his further research as well. Both returned to their early work on decoding the genetic code with a paper on how protein synthesis originates, where mRNA and tRNA constraints evolved, enabling a five-base interaction with a flip of the anticodon loop, eventually developing a triplet code translating system without the need of a ribosome.
Awards and honors
This is another milestone, as it is the only paper in scientific history with three independent Nobel laureates collaborating as authors. Brenner worked with Francis Crick and Aaron Klug for this paper. He has been awarded the Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences, the Albert Lasker Medical Research Award in 1971, and finally the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2002.
Brenner last research involved the study of vertebrate genes and genome evolution. His contributions in this have paved the way for analyzing gene sequences, which have offered new insights into the evolution of vertebrates.
