Paul Zamecnik, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

Paul Zamecnik

American geneticist

Date of Birth: 22-Nov-1912

Place of Birth: Cleveland, Ohio, United States

Date of Death: 27-Oct-2009

Profession: physician, university teacher, biochemist, geneticist

Nationality: United States

Zodiac Sign: Sagittarius

Paul Charles Zamecnik (22 November 1912 – 27 October 2009) was an American scientist who played a central role in the early history of molecular biology.
He was a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and a senior scientist at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Zamecnik pioneered the in vitro synthesis of proteins and helped elucidate the way cells generate proteins.
With Mahlon Hoagland he co-discovered transfer RNA (tRNA).
Through his later work, he is credited as the inventor of antisense therapeutics.
Throughout his career, Zamecnik earned over a dozen US patents for his therapeutic techniques.
Up until his death in 2009 he maintained a lab at MGH where he studied the application of synthetic oligonucleotides (antisense hybrids) for chemotherapeutic treatment of drug resistant and XDR tuberculosis in his later years.