The Life and Work of
Francis Crick
Most people
know Francis Crick as one half of the famous Watson and Crick duo who
discovered the double helix structure of DNA, but there is more to him than
that. Francis Harry Compton Crick was born in Northampton, England on June 8th,
1916 to Harry and Annie Elizabeth Crick. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree
from the University College London in physics in 1937. Ironically WWII, which
was the war that destroyed his PhD research, was the same war he ended up
researching how to design magnetic and acoustic mines for the Admiralty
Research Laboratory. After the war Crick wanted to go back to school and get
his degree in a completely different subject, biology.
In 1949
Crick started studying and researching at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge
where he met his future research partner James Watson in 1951. While doing his
groundbreaking research with Watson on the unknown structure of DNA Crick was
also working on his PhD, which he earned in 1954 from the University of
Cambridge.
Watson and
Crick were able to determine that the DNA structure is a double helix by using
X-ray diffraction studies of DNA, and announced this discovery on February 28th
1953. Their hypothesis was that new identical strands could be formed from the
splitting of the two sides of the double helix. This discovery led to the
understanding of both replication of genes and chromosomes. If it had not been
for previous DNA research, Watson and Crick’s discovery would not have been
possible. Attached below is a link in order to find out more about the research
that was used by Watson and Crick. In 1962 Crick was a co-winner of the Nobel
Prize in Physiology or Medicine along with James Watson and Maurice Wilkins for
their discovery of the double helix shape of DNA.
Watson and
Crick enlisted the help of Maurice Wilkins, who was colleagues with Rosalind
Franklin. Franklin actually had a huge role in Watson and Crick’s discovery,
but was not very well known for her help until after she passed away. She had written
papers that were unpublished about the structure of DNA, and also took the
famous Photo 51, which was her X-ray diffraction image of DNA. The reason
Wilkins earned the Nobel Prize rather than Franklin was he provided the
research that Franklin had to Watson and Crick without her knowledge.
After his
major discovery Crick went on to do quite a bit more research. Another
important discovery he made was his explanation of “central dogma”. Central
dogma is the flow of genetic information from DNA to RNA in order to make a
protein. Also posted below is a link to learn more about central dogma. Another
project he worked on was with a British chemist named Leslie Orgel where they figured
out a process called directed panspermia.
Throughout his career Crick
published many books and won numerous awards for his research. On July 28th,
2004 Francis Crick died in La Jolla, California at the age of 88. Francis Crick
was a major influence in the molecular biology field and paved the way for today’s
DNA research.
IMO, much of Crick's most important work was after 1953. He lead the team that figured out the mechanism by which nucleotides code for protein: https://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/ps/access/SCBCBJ.pdf
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