J. Heinrich Matthaei (* 1929) is a German biochemist. He is best known for his unique contribution to solving the genetic code on May 15, 1961. Whilst a post-doctoral visitor in the laboratory of Marshall Warren Nirenberg at the NIH in Bethesda, Maryland, he discovered that a synthetic RNA polynucleotide, composed of a repeating uridylic acid residue, coded for a polypeptide chain encoding just one kind of amino acid, phenylalanine. In scientific terms, he discovered that polyU codes for polyphenylalanine and hence the coding unit for this amino acid is composed of a series of Us or, as we now know the genetic code is read in triplets, the codon for phenylalanine is UUU. This single experiment opened the way to the solution of the genetic code. It was for this and later work on the genetic code for which Nirenberg shared the Nobel Prize for Medicine and Physiology. In addition Matthaei and his co-wokers in the following years published a multitude of results concerning the early understanding of the form and function of the genetic code.

Why Matthaei , who personally deciphered the genetic code, was excluded from scientific prices is one of the Nobel Prize controversies. Later, Matthaei was a member of the Max Planck Society in Göttingen.

References

• J. Heinrich Matthaei and Marshall W. Nirenberg Characteristics and Stabilization of DNA ase-Sensitive Protein Synthesis in E. coli Extracts PNAS 1961 47: 1580-1588.
• Marshall W. Nirenberg and J. Heinrich Matthaei The Dependence of Cell- Free Protein Synthesis in E. coli upon Naturally Occurring or Synthetic Polyribonucleotides PNAS 1961 47: 1588-1602.
• Hans-Jörg Rheinberger - "Experimentalsysteme - Eine Geschichte der Proteinsynthese im Reagenzglas" Wallstein ISBN 3-89244-454-4

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