Har Gobind Khorana was born of Hindu parents in Raipur, a little village in Punjab, which is now part of eastern Pakistan. The correct date of his birth is not known; that shown in documents is January 9th, 1922. He is the youngest of a family of one daughter and four sons. His father was a «patwari», a village agricultural taxation clerk in the British Indian system of government. Although poor, his father was dedicated to educating his children and they were practically the only literate family in the village inhabited by about 100 people.

Har Gobind Khorana attended D.A.V. High School in Multan (now West Punjab); Ratan Lal, one of his teachers, influenced him greatly during that period. Later, he studied at the Punjab University in Lahore where he obtained an M. Sc. degree. Mahan Singh, a great teacher and accurate experimentalist, was his supervisor.

Khorana lived in India until 1945, when the award of a Government of India Fellowship made it possible for him to go to England and he studied for a Ph. D. degree at the University of Liverpool. Roger J. S. Beer supervised his research, and, in addition, looked after him diligently. It was the introduction of Khorana to Western civilization and culture.

Khorana spent a postdoctoral year (1948-1949) at the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule in Zurich with Professor Vladimir Prelog. The association with Professor Prelog molded immeasurably his thought and philosophy towards science, work, and effort.

After a brief period in India in the fall of 1949, Khorana returned to England where he obtained a fellowship to work with Dr. (now Professor) G. W. Kenner and Professor (now Lord) A. R. Todd. He stayed in Cambridge from 1950 till 1952. Again, this stay proved to be of decisive value to Khorana. Interest in both proteins and nucleic acids took root at that time.

A job offer in 1952 from Dr. Gordon M. Shrum of British Columbia (now Chancellor of Simon Fraser University, British Columbia) took him to Vancouver. The British Columbia Research Council offered at that time very little by way of facilities, but there was «all the freedom in the world», to use Dr. Shrum's words, to do what the researcher liked to do. During the following years, with Dr. Shrum's inspiration and encouragement and frequent help and scientific counsel from Dr. Jack Campbell (now Head of the Department of Microbiology at the University of British Columbia), a group began to work in the field of biologically interesting phosphate esters and nucleic acids. Among the many devoted and loyal colleagues of this period, there should, in particular, be mention of Dr. Gordon M. Tener (now a Professor in the Biochemistry Department of the University of British Columbia), who contributed much to the spiritual and intellectual well-being of the group.

In 1960 Khorana moved to the Institute for Enzyme Research at the University of Wisconsin. He became a naturalized citizen of the United States. As of the fall of 1970 Khorana has been Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Biology and Chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Har Gobind Khorana was married in 1952 to Esther Elizabeth Sibler, who is of Swiss origin. Esther brought a consistent sense of purpose into his life at a time when, after six years' absence from the country of his birth, Khorana felt out of place everywhere and at home nowhere. They have three children: Julia Elizabeth (born May 4th, 1953), Emily Anne (born October 18th, 1954), and Dave Roy (born July 26th, 1958).

A 52-year-old Malaysian man, a 24-year-old sub-Saharan woman, and a 28-year-old Madagascan woman (who was heterozygous for hemoglobin S) were admitted to North Hospital in Marseilles, France. Blood tests using an Advia2120i hematology analyzer (Siemens) showed no or mild anemia (109-150 g/L), normal or high mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (339-364 g/L), and borderline or slightly high red cell distribution width (15%-19.2%).

The red blood cell (RBC) volume and hemoglobin concentration cytogram clearly showed a typical distribution of comma-shaped RBCs, with an increased number of hyperchromic RBCs (panel A). Examination of the blood smear revealed anisocytosis and poikilocytosis, without spherocytes but with ovalocytes and macro-ovalocytes, some of them with more than 1 ridge (panel B; original magnification ×100, May-Grünwald Giemsa stain). The eosin-5′-maleimide binding test performed for each patient showed a reduced mean channel fluorescence between 26.2% and 30.9%, confirming an anomaly of the band-3 protein. A heterozygous 9-amino-acid deletion (residues 400 to 408) in band 3 (SLC4A1), which is the most common genetic abnormality in Southeast Asian ovalocytosis (SAO), was found in all 3 patients. Most cases of SAO are asymptomatic, so careful examination of a cytogram from the Advia2120i analyzer and close observation of the blood smear can help diagnose SAO.

Scientists at the University of York have harnessed the therapeutic effects of carbon monoxide-releasing molecules to develop a new antibiotic which could be used to treat the sexually transmitted infection gonorrhoea.

Chalita Suansane is a 21 year old Thailand native currently studying Microbiology at Mahasarakham University. Ever since Suansane was young, she was often curious and eager to learn new things, including a passion to explore living organisms that you cannot see by the eyes. On top of her studies, Suansane volunteers at ‘Baan Home Hug’ which is an orphanage that houses children who have inherited HIV from their parents, children who were abused, and children who have lost their family. If crowned, she would like to raise awareness and advocate for HIV/AIDS. Suansane would also like to let young women know that fulfilling your own passions, having self-respect, and being compassionate to others will make you confidently beautiful in your own way.