Crick, Francis research

FIGURE 28 2 Molecular modeling—1953 style James Watson (left) and Francis Crick (right) with their DNA model A Barrington Brown/Science Source Photo Researchers Inc... 

Francis Crick and James Watson point out features of their model for the strueture of DNA. A. Barrington Brown/Soionoo Sonroo/Photo Researchers Inc.)... 

As the field of molecular genetics grew, the DNA molecule became the focus of many research efforts. Francis Crick and George Gamov developed the sequence hypothesis to explain how DNA makes protein. They stated that the DNA sequence specifies the amino acid sequence of a protein and postulated the central dogma of molecular genetics the flow of genetic information is a one-way road, it always takes the direction from DNA to RNA to protein [16]. In the same year, 1957, Mathew Meselson and Frank Stahl demonstrated the replication mechanism of DNA [17]. In 1958, DNA polymerase became the first enzyme used to make DNA in a test tube. 

Two major discoveries in 1953 were of crucial importance in the history of biochemistry. In that year James D. Watson and Francis Crick deduced the double-helical structure of DNA and proposed a structural basis for its precise replication (Chapter 8). Their proposal illuminated the molecular reality behind the idea of a gene. In that same year, Frederick Sanger worked out the sequence of amino acid residues in the polypeptide chains of the hormone insulin (Fig. 3-24), surprising many researchers who had long thought that elucidation of the amino acid sequence of a polypeptide would be a hopelessly difficult task. It quickly became evident that the nucleotide sequence in DNA and the amino acid sequence in proteins were somehow related. Barely a decade after these discoveries, the role of the nucleotide... 

Bankston, J. Francis Crick and James Watson Pioneers in DNA Research. Hockessin, Del. Mitchell Lane Publishers, 2002. 

Todd s research provided the knowledge of how the nucleotides are linked in DNA and RNA and thus it belongs to the basis of James D. Watson s (b.1928) and Francis H. Crick s (b.1916) work on the structure of DNA, the double helix. In addition, his work on coenzymes opened new vistas for the understanding and manipulation of many biochemical processes and thus contributed fundamentally to concepts that soon would become of use in medicinal chemistry. 

Another phenomenon of recent interest and debate which may benefit from a habit routine interpretation is filling in. In its simplest aspect, it has long been known that due to the particular structure of the eye, there is a small blind spot on each retina at the position of its attachment to the optic nerve. The portion of the visual scene projected here is therefore not represented in the visual cortex of the brain, yet we have no awareness that there are two blank spots in our field of view. (A simple experiment that all children are taught shows the reality of the blind spot.) The process whereby the brain nevertheless produces an apparent continuous field of view is called filling-in, and some examples of recent research and controversy are by Francis Crick. (14) Although the blind spot may be a quite simple process (the retina itself may play some... 

Largely because of advances in biotechnology, the initial working draft of the human genome sequence was completed in 2000, well ahead of schedule. In April of 2003,50 years after James Watson and Francis Crick described the double-helix structure of DNA and over 2 years ahead of schedule, researchers announced the completion of the Human Genome Project. The final version contains 99% of the gene-containing sequence, with 99.9% accuracy. 

When James Watson (left) and Francis Crick discovered the structure of DNA in 1953 using Rosalind Franklin s data, they were research students at the Henry Cavendish Laboratory of Cambridge University. 

Francis Harry Compton Crick was born on 8 June 1916 in Northampton, England. He studied physics at University College, London, where he obtained a BSc in 1937. He then started his PhD in physics, which was interrupted in 1939 by the outbreak of World War II. Crick worked as a scientist for the British Admiralty until he left in 1947 to study biology in Cambridge, where he worked at the Strangeways Research Laboratory. 

After the war Bragg estabfished at the Cavendish Laboratory, with funding from the Medical Research Cotmcil, a unit for the study of molecular structure of biological systems. It was here in 1953 that Francis Crick (whom Bragg did not like) and James Watson determined the double helical structure of DNA. At the start of 1954 Bragg moved to the Royal Institution to... 

Watson s next research post at Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge, England, brought him into contact with the physicist turned biologist Francis Crick. Together they shared an interest in DNA. Thus began the partnership between Watson and Crick that resulted in their joint proposal of the double-helical model of the DNA in 1953. Watson, Crick, and Wilkins shared the 1962 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for their DNA studies. 

Francis H. C. Crick was bom in Northampton, England, in 1916. Originally trained as a physicist. Crick was involved in radar research during World War II. After the war, he entered Cambridge University to study for a Ph.D. in chemistry, which he received in 1953. He was a graduate student when he carried out his portion of the work that led to the proposal of the double helical stmcture of DNA. 

Representations of the double-helical structure of DNA have become common in the popular press as well as in the scientific literature. When the double helix was proposed by James Watson and Francis Crick in 1953, it touched off a flood of research activity, leading to great advances in molecular biology. 

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