Remembering an RNA and Antisense Pioneer

Paul Zamecnik, who co-discovered transfer RNA, died from cancer in late October at the age of 96, according to the New York Times. A molecular biologist, Zamecnik "devised a system for modeling protein synthesis in a test tube, so he could more easily track the steps involved in translating the genetic information encoded in DNA into a chain of amino acids," the article says. Along with Mahlon Hoagland and Mary Stephenson, he discovered the molecule they named transfer RNA in 1956. Later in his career, he published the first work on antisense technology, demonstrating that "a short, synthetic series of nucleotides ... could be used to inactivate a specific gene."