Gobind's last graduate student

Abstract

Written on the occasion of his 100th birthday, this is a personal account of my time as a graduate student with Nobel laureate, H. Gobind Khorana, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1996 to 2000.

Fig. 1

Birthday note. (Photograph used with permission of the owner, Judith Klein-Seetharaman)

Fig. 2

Gobind and Esther: a family away from home. A Fax sent to me in Germany planning my arrival at MIT. B Note on letter head. C Note regarding my mother’s visit at MIT. (Photographs used with permission of the owner, Judith Klein-Seetharaman)

Fig. 3

The Khorana lab at the time I was in his lab. A The Khorana lab sometime after I joined in 1995 in front of our lab poster. Top row, from left to right: E. Getmanova, J. Klein, Y. Itoh, H.G. Khorana, P.J. Reeves, J. Kim, L. Niu. Bottom row, from left to right: J. Hwa, K. Cai, M. Lowen. B The lab poster from A during its preparation phase. Outline and note from Gobind. C The annual group picture of the combined Khorana and RajBhandary labs in July 1997. Front row: P. Reeves, A. McInnis, U.L. RajBhandary, A. Kowal, K. Cai, H.G. Khorana, J. Carlin, U. Varshney, H.J. Drabkin, Y. Li. Back row: R. Vaidyanathan, K. Cha, C. Bruel, J. Klein, H-J. Park, S. Gite, J. Kim, J. Hwa. (Photographs used with permission of the owner, Judith Klein-Seetharaman)

Fig. 4

A box of donuts appeared every Saturday in the computer room at the lab. Shown is here how I think a classical donut box looked like in Gobind’s brain. More pictures of the people depicted here are also shown in Fig. 3A, C

Fig. 5

Primary means of communication: in-person meetings and notes. Shown here are some of Gobind’s hand-written notes or typed up notes via Judy Carlin. A Regular note. B Yellow sticky note. C Paper napkin note. D Typed up note. (Photographs used with permission of the owner, Judith Klein-Seetharaman)

Fig. 6

More notes. A Small paper note. B Paper napkin, taped to my lab bench with purple tape found on my bench. (Photographs used with permission of the owner, Judith Klein-Seetharaman)

Fig. 7

Faxes from Japan. A Fax from Japan on 10/16/1998. B Slide referenced in the joke from A. C Fax from Japan on 10/19/1998. D Fax from Japan on 10/21/1998. (Photographs used with permission of the owner, Judith Klein-Seetharaman)

Fig. 8

The paper writing process. A Step 1: a note. B Step 2: an outline. C Steps 3-n: multiple rounds of revisions. (Photographs used with permission of the owner, Judith Klein-Seetharaman)

Fig. 9

Bleaching and seemingly recovery of chromophore by absorbance spectroscopy. (Photograph used with permission of the owner, Judith Klein-Seetharaman)

Fig. 10

Gobind’s legacy: rhodopsin research in my lab continues. A Homology models of coral opsin candidates (Kumar et al. 2023). B Experimental setup in my lab with spectroscopy setup (left), biochemical preparation (center) and coral tank (right). (Photograph used with permission of the owner, Judith Klein-Seetharaman)