Alan Garen

Alan Garen
BornMarch 26, 1926
United States
DiedApril 20, 2022(2022-04-20) (aged 96)
New Haven, Connecticut, U.S.
EducationUniversity of Colorado
Known forDiscovery of stop codons
Scientific career
FieldsGenetics
InstitutionsYale University
Doctoral advisorTheodore T. Puck

Alan Garen was an American geneticist who co-discovered suppressor mutations for tRNA. The Garen lab also showed that certain triplet codons (5'-UAG, 5'-UAA, and 5'-UGA) failed to bind amino acids.[1] Thus, the Garen lab and Brenner labs are both credited with discovery of the stop codons of the genetic code.[2]

Garen was a professor at Yale University between 1963 and 2021.[3] He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

  1. ^ Weigert M, Galluci E, Lanka E, Garen A (1966). "Characteristics of the genetic code in vivo". Cold Spring Harb Symp Quant Biol. 31: 145–150. doi:10.1101/sqb.1966.031.01.022. PMID 4866371.
  2. ^ Stretton AO, Kaplan S, Brenner S (1966). "Nonsense codons". Cold Spring Harb Symp Quant Biol. 31: 173–179. doi:10.1101/sqb.1966.031.01.025. PMID 5237189.
  3. ^ "MB&B bids farewell to Tom Pollard and Alan Garen | Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry".