2023 not only marks the 20thanniversary of the Human Genome Project ’s completion but also the 70thanniversary of the discovery of the structure of DNA itself . Although this is a significant yr for the celebration of the biological sciences and all they have reach since these milepost events , it is of import to think back the contribution of scientists who have been overlooked by the hype .
This is how the story goes
Thetraditional storygoes like this . In the 1953 , the American biologist James Watson and English physicist Francis Crick , a gutsy and robustious scientific couplet , come across the double spiral , the spiraling - ladder body structure of DNA ( deoxyribonucleic acid ) .
This discovery essentially gave cost increase to New molecular biology , a theatre of operations of sketch that canvas the composition , body structure and fundamental interaction of cellular molecules . This quickly contribute to primal insights into the familial code and protein deductive reasoning , start the product of new scientific technique in the seventies and eighties , especiallyrecombinant DNA enquiry , genetical engineering , rapid gene sequencing , andmonoclonal antibodies .
Without Watson and Crick ’s discovery , we would not have thing like modernforensics , genic fingerprinting , the complete map of the humangenome , or this annoying type fromJurassic Park .
The tale is keen and triumphant , but it is incomplete and perhaps a little dishonest . In reality , the fib behind the breakthrough of DNA is more complicated .
Building blocks of life
DNA was actually first identified as early as 1869 by Swiss chemistFriedrich Miescherwhile experiment on the chemical constitution of white corpuscle ( white blood cellphone ) . In his experimentation , Miescher regain a precipitate of an unnamed center that he pull in was neither a protein nor a lipid . Recognizing that it was in fact a new atom , he name it a “ nuclein ” as he had isolate it from the cell ’s nuclei – the name has continue to this day as part of “ deoxyribonucleic acid ” .
Miescher went on to show that nuclein was a characteristic component of all nuclei , and speculated that it may recreate an authoritative role in the transmission of transmissible traits . Although , he did eventually reject this latter call .
Unfortunately , Miescher ’s employment shortly fall into obscurity , but other scientist continued to explore the corpuscle he had discovered . One of these was the Russian biochemistPhoebus Levene . Levene receive his medical arcdegree from St Petersburg Imperial Medical Academy in 1891 , but then fled to New York City due to anti - Semite persecution . There he devoted himself to chemical research and was the first to isolatenucleotides , the basic building block of nucleic back breaker ( RNAand DNA ) .
Building on Levene ’s work , the Austrian biochemistErwin Chargaff , who had also fly to the US to ward off persecution , made two discovery that pave the way for the double coil . Firstly , he mark that DNA , whether it come from a plant or an animate being , control equal numbers of G and cytosine unit , as well as equal amounts of A and thymine . This realization hinted at the pedestal couplet structure of DNA , though Chargaff was n’t able to make that connection himself . He also discovered the regulation that the amounts of adenine , thymine , cytosine , and guanine varied between specie , suggest that DNA may be the genetic material for all life .
Chargaff actuallymet Watson and Crick in Cambridgein 1952 and told them about his enquiry . Though he was not particularly warm of the pair , his work nevertheless determine their subsequent discovery of the turbinate anatomical structure of DNA .
But of all the marginalise scientist who contributed to the story of DNA , the most famous is Rosalind Franklin .
Rosalind Franklin and Photo 51
Franklin was an English chemist and X - electron beam crystallographer sour at top executive College London with physicist Maurice Wilkins to find the structure of DNA . Unfortunately , Franklin and Wilkins did not get along , and their rivalry became legendary . Franklin was dismissed as a " hard adult female " and , as Watson later drop a line , agree toThe Washington Post , " an angry ' bluestocking ' , unimaginative termagant and Jewish girl of an ' learned banking family ' " .
Despite their criticism , Franklin was brainy and had spend months snap and develop thousands ofX - ray crystallography films of DNA , and carrying out scrupulous analysis to interpret the diffraction outcome . Then , in January 1953 , Wilkins on the QT showed Watson one of Franklin ’s photos , the now far-famed Photo 51 , which gave him the insight he needed to make history .
While Watson and Crick went on to publish their groundbreaking find in the journalNaturein April 1953 , Franklin had actuate to Birkbeck College , in London , where she work on the structures of RNA viruses . She then go of cancer in 1958 , never knowing the extent to which her work had been co - choose by Watson and Crick .
Today , the true tarradiddle behind the discovery of DNA is well recognise and , whether it was a causa ofrakish opportunismon Watson ’s part or inherentmisogynywithin the science more broadly , Franklin ’s contributions will nevertheless be worthy of festivity this year .
