Paul Zamecnik | |
|---|---|
 Zamecnik in 1966 | |
| Born | November 22, 1912 |
| Died | October 27, 2009 (aged 96) |
| Alma mater | Dartmouth College Harvard Medical School |
| Known for | Inventor of antisense therapeutics |
| Family | John Stepan Zamecnik (great-uncle) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Molecular biology |
| Institutions | Harvard Medical School |
Paul Charles Zamecnik (November 22, 1912 – October 27, 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).[1][2] 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.
- ^ Hoagland MB, Zamecnik PC, Stephenson ML (April 1957). "Intermediate Reactions In Protein Biosynthesis". Biochim Biophys Acta. 24 (1): 215–6. doi:10.1016/0006-3002(57)90175-0. PMID 13426231.
- ^ Hoagland MB, Stephenson ML, Scott JF, Hecht LI, Zamecnik PC (March 1958). "A Soluble Ribonucleic Acid Intermediate in Protein Synthesis" (PDF). J Biol Chem. 231 (1): 241–57. doi:10.1016/S0021-9258(19)77302-5. PMID 13538965.