Dr. Marshall W. Nirenberg

Dr. Marshall W. Nirenberg, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering the key to deciphering the genetic code. Dr. Nirenberg and two other researchers, working independently, with whom he shared the prize, made major advances in understanding the chemical mechanisms by which genetic language or information is translated into various proteins that determine the nature and characteristics of all living things. Dr. Nirenberg was the first NIH Nobelist and also the first federal scientist to receive a Nobel Prize.