Series 4: Laboratory Research, 1946-2001

The Lab Research series comprises the bulk of the collection and documents experiments conducted by Nirenberg and his LBG staff from 1957 to 2001. Included in the series are experiment data, graphs, lab diaries, lab notes and notebooks, manuscript materials, photographs and negatives, and machine print-outs. The materials are organized into three sub-series: Lab Diaries, Lab Notes and Notebooks, and Lab Photography. Each sub-series is arranged chronologically. When reviewed in conjunction with the annual reports in Series 3, these materials paint a detailed portrait of laboratory activities.

The first sub-series, Lab Diaries, consists mostly of hard-bound notebooks in which Nirenberg tracked the experiments being conducted by himself and his staff. The notebooks contain Nirenberg's instructions and ideas for experiments, tasks to do (and re-do), and requests for articles; many of the diaries also contain shared experimental data, particularly the earlier volumes from Nirenberg's postdoctoral period. In addition, the diaries from 1965 contain notes and ideas about the genetic code, written at a time when Nirenberg was shifting away from the code to neurobiology; as such, these volumes serve as summaries of his work to that point. Numbered sequentially, the diaries are nearly complete from 1957 to 1974, with only volumes 27 and 32 missing; an index compiled in 2000 is included at the end of the sub-series.

Nirenberg's research material, the most substantial portion of the collection, forms the Lab Notes and Notebooks sub-series. These notes, often assembled into 3-ring binders for easier access, contain experimental data by Nirenberg and his colleagues beginning with his postdoctoral work in DeWitt Stetten's lab at NIAMDD. A combination of original materials and annotated photocopies, the notes consist of experimental data in the form of graphs, charts, lists, and worksheets, and also include memoranda between Nirenberg and his research staff, supplemental articles, scraps of manuscripts, and ideas and thoughts about the work at hand. There are also volumes detailing solutions, methodologies, protocols, and cell inventories. Nearly one hundred different researchers are represented by the fifty years' worth of material, including Nirenberg's wife, Perola Zaltzman. The collection contains numerous notebooks by lab technicians Norma Heaton and Theresa Caryk, who worked with Nirenberg in the LBG for several decades.

The Lab Notes and Notebooks sub-series has been divided further into six sub-sub-series based upon the experimental focus of the lab: Undated, Genetic Code Experiments, Transition to Neurobiology, Effects of Morphine on the Nervous System, Neural Synapses in Chick Retina, and Homeobox Genes. Researchers should be aware of overlaps between each of the sub-sub-series, particularly in the different phases of the neurobiological studies. For ongoing experiments it was not unusual for more than one investigator to be involved, therefore many volumes contain notes by multiple investigators and can span several years. As such, the date ranges for each sub-sub-series reflect the dates of the materials, not of the actual period of experimentation.

For all six sub-sub-series, original folder titles were retained whenever possible; missing data which has been provided is denoted by square brackets [ ]. Materials within each sub-sub-series (except for the first, Undated) are arranged chronologically by the year in which they were begun and then alphabetically, first by investigator (when identified) and then by subject. Untitled or unidentified items are housed at the end of each year. Missing dates have been supplied whenever possible; any remaining undated materials have been placed within the first subseries, Undated.

Nirenberg's early experiments with Heinrich Matthaei on polu-U, as well as the work of the LBG to identify the sixty-four codons (or "code words," as they were first known), are documented through the notebooks in the Genetic Code Experiments sub-sub-series. In addition to volumes created by Nirenberg, the sub-sub-series includes experimental data from lab technicians Caryk and Heaton, postdoctoral fellows Bill Groves, Taysir Jaouni, Charles O'Neal, Sidney Pestka, and others who assisted with deciphering the code.

Two documents of particular note are the genetic code charts compiled by Nirenberg and staff between 1964 and 1966 as they identified the codons. The original chart is a makeshift one, formed from various pieces of graph paper taped together, with data entered in different colors by different hands. The vertical axis on the left side lists the sixty-four codons in sets of four, while the horizontal axis across the top displays the twenty amino acids; data from repeated experimentation, with other notations and highlights, were filled in over time. The accompanying hand-written note from Nirenberg claims that while this chart was the original, its cluttered appearance necessitated its replacement with a "longer (and neater)" version. The later version, crafted from photocopies taped together and annotated in the same style, is housed within an oversized folder. Negatives of both charts are housed within the regular collection. Due to its fragility and value, the original chart is housed permanently in the History of Medicine Division's Incunabula Room, and is available for viewing upon request.

Materials in the third sub-series, Lab Photography, also demonstrate the LBG's experimental progression. Beginning in the late 1960s through the mid-1970s, Nirenberg and the LBG researchers used cinemicrography, the photographing of objects by a microscope equipped with a motion picture camera, to document the work they were conducting on neuroblastoma and the neural synapses in chick retina. These experiments resulted in the hundreds of photographs and analyses which form the Lab Photography sub-series.