The Nirenberg and Leder experiment was a scientific experiment performed in 1964 by Marshall W. Nirenberg and Philip Leder. The experiment elucidated the triplet nature of the genetic code and allowed the remaining ambiguous codons in the genetic code to be deciphered. In this experiment, using a ribosome binding assay, various combinations of mRNA were passed through a filter which contained ribosomes. Unique triplets promoted the binding of specific tRNAs to the ribosome.