James D. Watson, the Nobel laureate who drew a storm of protest this week for his comments to a British newspaper about the intelligence levels of Africans, says he is “mortified” by those remarks, according to the Associated Press, and his job could be in jeopardy.

The president and trustees of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, which Mr. Watson serves as chancellor, announced late Thursday that they were suspending Mr. Watson from his administrative duties “pending further deliberation by the board.” That announcement came a day after the private, nonprofit research institution, located on New York’s Long Island, dissociated itself from the comments attributed to Mr. Watson in The Sunday Times of London.

In an interview with the AP on Thursday, the 79-year-old geneticist said he was “mortified about what has happened.” He added: “More importantly, I cannot understand how I could have said what I am quoted as having said.”

He also said that “to all those who have drawn the inference from my words that Africa, as a continent, is somehow genetically inferior, I can only apologize unreservedly. That is not what I meant. More importantly from my point of view, there is no scientific basis for such a belief.”

A spokesman for The Sunday Times said that the interview with Mr. Watson had been recorded and that the newspaper stood by its story. —Charles Huckabee