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James D. Watson

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Human Scientists

   CAPTION: James Dewey Watson

                            James D. Watson
   James D. Watson
        Born      April 06, 1928 (1928-04-06)
                  Chicago, Illinois, USA
     Residence    Flag of United States USA, Flag of United Kingdom UK
    Nationality   Flag of United States American
       Field      molecular biologist
     Known for    DNA structure, Molecular biology
   Notable prizes Nobel Prize (1962)

   James Dewey Watson KBE ForMemRS (born April 6, 1928) is an American
   molecular biologist, best known as one of the discoverers of the
   structure of the DNA molecule. Watson, Francis Crick, and Maurice
   Wilkins were awarded the 1962 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine
   "for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic
   acids and its significance for information transfer in living
   material".

Early life

   Born in Chicago, Illinois on April 6th, 1928, Watson has been
   fascinated with bird watching since he was a child due to the influence
   of his father, James D. Watson, a businessman. At the age of 12, he
   starred on the Quiz Kids, a popular radio show that challenged
   precocious youngsters to answer difficult questions. Thanks to the
   liberal policy of Robert Hutchins, he enrolled at the age of 15 at the
   University of Chicago. During his years as a student, he avoided
   chemistry classes as often as he could. After reading Erwin
   Schrödinger's book What Is Life? in 1946, he changed his direction from
   ornithology to genetics. He earned his B.Sc. in Zoology in 1947.

   He was attracted to the work of Salvador Luria. Luria eventually shared
   a Nobel Prize for his work on the Luria-Delbrück experiment, which
   concerned the nature of genetic mutations. Luria was part of a
   distributed group of researchers who were making use of the viruses
   that infect bacteria in order to explore genetics. Luria and Max
   Delbrück were among the leaders of this new " Phage Group", an
   important movement of geneticists from experimental systems such as
   Drosophila towards microbial genetics. Early in 1948 Watson began his
   Ph.D. research in Luria's laboratory at Indiana University and that
   spring he got to meet Delbrück in Luria's apartment and again that
   summer during Watson's first trip to the Cold Spring Harbour Laboratory
   (CSHL). The Phage Group was the intellectual medium within which Watson
   became a working scientist. Importantly, the members of the Phage Group
   had a sense that they were on the path to discovering the physical
   nature of the gene. In 1949 Watson took a course with Felix Haurowitz
   that included the conventional view of that time: that proteins were
   genes and able to replicate themselves. The other major molecular
   component of chromosomes, DNA, was thought by many to be a "stupid
   tetranucleotide", serving only a structural role to support the
   proteins. However, even at this early time, Watson, under the influence
   of the Phage Group, was aware of the work of Oswald Avery which
   suggested that DNA was the genetic molecule. Watson's research project
   involved using X-rays to inactivate bacterial viruses (" phage"). He
   gained his Ph.D. in Zoology at Indiana University in 1950. Watson then
   went to Europe for postdoctoral research, first heading to the
   laboratory of biochemist Herman Kalckar in Copenhagen who was
   interested in nucleic acids and had developed an interest in phage as
   an experimental system.

   Watson's time in Copenhagen had one favorable consequence. He was able
   to do some experiments with Ole Maaloe (a member of the Phage Group)
   that were consistent with DNA being the genetic molecule. Watson had
   learned about these kinds of experiments the previous summer at Cold
   Spring Harbour. The experiments involved radioactive phosphate as a
   tracer and attempted to determine what molecular components of phage
   particles actually infect the target bacteria during viral infection.
   Watson never developed a constructive interaction with Kalckar, but he
   did accompany Kalckar to a meeting in Italy where Watson saw Maurice
   Wilkins talk about his X-ray diffraction data for DNA. Watson was now
   certain that DNA had a definite molecular structure that could be
   solved.

   In 1951 the chemist Linus Pauling published his model of the protein
   alpha helix, a result that grew out of Pauling's relentless efforts in
   X-ray crystallography and molecular model building. Watson now had the
   desire to learn to perform X-ray diffraction experiments so that he
   could work to determine the structure of DNA. That summer, Luria met
   John Kendrew and arranged for a new postdoctoral research project for
   Watson in England.

The structure of DNA

                                                           James D. Watson

                                         Discovery of the DNA Double Helix

                                                  James Watson in the lab.
                                                   Francis Crick
                                                 Rosalind Franklin
                                                   James Watson
                                                  Maurice Wilkins
                                               Cavendish Laboratory
                                               King's College London
                                                     Photo 51

     DNA pioneers
   William Astbury
   Oswald Avery
   Erwin Chargaff
   Max Delbrück
   Jerry Donohue
   Raymond Gosling
   Phoebus Levene
   Linus Pauling
   Sir John Randall
   Erwin Schrödinger
   Alec Stokes
   Herbert Wilson

   In October 1951, James Watson started at the Cavendish Laboratory, the
   physics department of the University of Cambridge, where he met Francis
   Crick. Watson and Crick started an intense intellectual collaboration
   that in less than a year and a half resulted in their discovery of the
   structure of DNA. Crick soon solved the mathematical equations that
   govern helical diffraction theory; Watson knew all of the key DNA
   results of the Phage Group.

   In late 1951 Crick and Watson began a series of informal exchanges with
   Wilkins. In November, Watson attended a seminar by Rosalind Franklin.
   She spoke about the X-ray diffraction data she had collected with
   Raymond Gosling. The data indicated that DNA was a helix of some sort.
   Soon after this seminar, Watson and Crick constructed an incorrect
   molecular model of DNA in which the phosphate backbones were on the
   inside of the structure. Franklin asserted that the phosphates almost
   certainly were on the outside, not the inside. Watson and Crick
   eventually came to see that she was right and used this information in
   their final determination of the helical structure. Franklin's findings
   were given to Watson and Crick by Maurice Wilkins which was without
   Franklin's permission or knowledge. In 1952, the final details of the
   chemical structure of the DNA backbone were determined by biochemists
   like Alexander Todd.

   During 1952, Crick and Watson had been asked not to work on making
   molecular models of the structure of DNA. Instead, Watson's official
   assignment was to perform X-ray diffraction experiments on tobacco
   mosaic virus. Tobacco mosaic virus was the first virus to be identified
   (1886) and purified (1935). Since electron microscopy revealed that
   virus crystals form inside infected plants, it made sense to isolate
   this virus for study by X-ray crystallography. Early X-ray diffraction
   images for tobacco mosaic virus had been collected before World War II.
   By 1954, Watson had deduced from his X-ray diffraction images that the
   tobacco mosaic virus had a helical structure. Despite his official
   assignment, the lure of solving the puzzle of DNA structure continued
   to tantalize Watson; with his friend Crick, he continued to think about
   how to determine the structure of DNA.

   In April 1952, Watson's PhD research advisor, Luria, was to speak at a
   meeting in England. However, Luria was not allowed to travel due to
   cold war fears over his Marxist leanings. Watson used Luria's speaking
   slot to talk about his own work with radioactive DNA and the results of
   others in the Phage Group that indicated the genetic material of phages
   was DNA. It has been recorded that during this meeting Watson was
   discussing with others prior discoveries by other researchers such as
   the calculated width of the B-form DNA molecule as determined by X-ray
   diffraction studies. By 1952 estimates from X-ray data and electron
   microscopy agreed that the diameter of DNA was about 2 nanometers.

   Watson and Crick benefitted from two travel-related strokes of luck in
   1952. First, Erwin Chargaff visited England in 1952 and inspired
   Watson's and Crick to learn more about nucleotide biochemistry. There
   were four nucleobases: guanine (G), cytosine (C), adenine (A) and
   thymine (T). The so-called Chargaff ratios experimental results had
   already shown that the bases are paired in DNA, in that the amount of G
   is equal to C and the amount of A is equal to T. Jerry Donohue
   explained to Watson and Crick the correct structures of the four bases.
   The second travel-related event was that Linus Pauling's plans to visit
   England were disrupted. His planned visit was cancelled for political
   reasons and he never gained access to the King's College X-ray
   diffraction data for DNA until it was published in 1953.

   In 1953, Crick and Watson were given permission by their lab director
   and Wilkins to try to make a structural model of DNA.

The breakthrough

   Watson's key contribution was in discovering the nucleotide base pairs
   that are the key to the structure and function of DNA. This key
   discovery was made in the Pauling "tradition", by playing with
   molecular models.

   Since he would have to wait for the Cavendish machine shop to make tin
   models, Watson, on February 21, 1953 made a molecule model of each
   using a straight edge, an exacto knife, white cardboard and paste.
   Chargaff had already suggested the pairing, which, in Watson's mind,
   were the "big" two-ring A and G technically referred to as purine
   structures being paired with the "small" one-ring T and C, known as
   pyrimidines. After building his cardboard molecule models, Watson was
   looking for the possibility of hydrogen bonds. The reader should note
   that these molecules are all flat in their ring structures. After
   moving the A and T molecules around on the table he sat at, he brought
   together the distal (relative to its five-member ring) nitrogen of the
   A and the correct nitrogen-based hydrogen of T. Fortunately, the A and
   T were lying on the table both "face up" in that they were in the
   orientation as they occur in DNA and Watson then noticed the
   possibility of the second hydrogen bond involving an oxygen atom. He
   quickly saw that the other pair, C's nitrogen and G's nitrogen-based
   hydrogen had a similar relationship and that those two molecules formed
   three such bonds. The reader should note from the diagrams that all
   five hydrogens involved have a covalent bond to a nitrogen (which has
   no "double" bond) and form the weaker hydrogen bond with either a
   nitrogen or an oxygen that each have one double valence bond to a
   carbon atom.

   Watson then saw that the two pairs could be superimposed on each other
   with similar overall structure. In particular, the hexagonal rings were
   equidistant and the relative orientations of the five-member rings of
   the "big" molecules, A and G were the same. The reader should also note
   that the nitrogens with the "squiggly" lines are the ones that attach,
   as "ladder rungs", to the helical backbone and that these nitrogen
   atoms are equidistant and also superimpose in the two pairs, allowing
   the helical structure to be smooth. Watson sensed that too many pieces
   were falling into place for this to be anything but the answer. He was
   correct.

Nobel Prize

   Watson and Crick proceeded to deduce the double helix structure of DNA
   which they submitted to the journal Nature and was subsequently
   published on April 25, 1953. For their efforts, Watson, Crick, and
   Wilkins were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1962
   for their research on the structure of nucleic acids.

The Double Helix

   In 1968 Watson wrote The Double Helix, one of the Modern Library's 100
   best non-fiction books. The account is the sometimes painful story of
   not only the discovery of the structure of DNA, but the personalities,
   conflicts and controversy surrounding their work. It was originally to
   be published by Harvard University Press, but after objections from
   both Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins, among others, Watson's home
   university dropped the book and it was instead published by a
   commercial publisher, an incident which caused some scandal. Watson's
   original title was to have been "Honest Jim", in part to raise the
   ethical questions of bypassing Franklin to gain access to her X-ray
   diffraction data before they were published. Watson seems to have never
   been particularly bothered by the way things turned out. If all that
   mattered was beating Pauling to the structure of DNA, then Franklin's
   cautious approach to analysis of the X-ray data was simply an obstacle
   that Watson needed to run around. Wilkins and others were there at the
   right time to help Watson and Crick do so. Also in 1968, Watson became
   the director of the Cold Spring Harbour Laboratory, and in 1974 made
   the CSHL his permanent residence.

   The Double Helix changed the way the public viewed scientists and the
   way they work. In the same way, Watson's first textbook, The Molecular
   Biology of the Gene, set a new standard for textbooks, particularly
   through the use of concept heads—brief declarative subheadings. Its
   style has been emulated by almost all succeeding textbooks. His next
   great success was Molecular Biology of the Cell, although here his role
   was more that of coordinator of an outstanding group of
   scientist-writers. His third textbook was Recombinant DNA, which used
   the ways in which genetic engineering has brought us so much new
   information about how organisms function. All the textbooks are still
   in print.

Genome Project

   In 1988, Watson's achievement and success led to his appointment as the
   Head of the Human Genome Project at the National Institutes of Health,
   a position he held until 1992. Watson left the Genome Project after
   conflicts with the new NIH Director, Bernadine Healy. Watson was
   opposed to Healy's attempts to acquire patents on gene sequences, and
   any ownership of the "laws of nature." Two years before stepping down
   from the Genome Project, he had stated his opinion on this long and
   ongoing controversy which he saw as an illogical barrier to research;
   he said, "The nations of the world must see that the human genome
   belongs to the world's people, as opposed to its nations." He left
   within weeks of the 1992 announcement that the NIH would be applying
   for patents on brain-specific cDNAs. In 1994, Watson became president
   of the CSHL for ten years. Dr. Francis Collins took over the role as
   Director of the Human Genome Project. Currently, Watson gives public
   speeches and serves as chancellor of the Cold Spring Harbour Laboratory
   in Cold Spring Harbour.

Positions

Allen Institute for Brain Science

   Dr. Watson is now the Institute advisor for the newly-formed Allen
   Institute for Brain Science. The Institute, located in Seattle,
   Washington, was founded in 2003 by Philanthropists Paul G. Allen and
   Jody Allen Patton as a nonprofit corporation (501(c) (3)) and medical
   research organization. A multidisciplinary group of neuroscientists,
   molecular biologists, informaticists, engineers, mathematicians,
   statisticians, and computational biologists have been brought together
   to form the scientific core of the Allen Institute. Utilizing the mouse
   model system, these fields have joined together to investigate
   expression of 20,000 genes in the adult mouse brain and to map gene
   expression to a cellular level beyond neuroanatomic boundaries. The
   data generated from this joint effort is contained in the publicly
   available Allen Brain Atlas application located at www.brain-map.org.
   Upon completion of the Allen Brain Atlas, this consortium of scientists
   will pursue additional questions to further our understanding of
   neuronal circuitry and the neuroanatomic framework that defines the
   functionality of the brain.

Champalimaud Foundation

   In January 2007, Dr. Watson accepted the invitation of Leonor Beleza,
   president of the Champalimaud Foundation, to become the head of the
   foundation's scientific council, an advisory organ. He will be in
   charge of selecting the remaining council members.

Controversies

   James Watson (February, 2003)
   James Watson (February, 2003)

Controversy about using King's College London's results

   An enduring controversy has been generated by Watson and Crick's use of
   DNA X-ray diffraction data collected by Rosalind Franklin and Raymond
   Gosling. The controversy arose from the fact that some of Franklin's
   data were stolen and used by Watson and Crick, without her knowledge,
   by her estranged colleagues and by Max Perutz. Watson, through his
   connections at King's College, effectively stole Franklin's data
   without her knowledge or consent. In fact, when he had asked her to
   share her crystallographic results, she refused him outright. Her
   experimental results provided estimates of the water content of DNA
   crystals and these results were consistent with the two sugar-phosphate
   backbones being on the outside of the molecule. Franklin personally
   told Crick and Watson that the backbones had to be on the outside. Her
   identification of the space group for DNA crystals revealed to Crick
   that the two DNA strands were antiparallel. The X-ray diffraction
   images collected by Gosling and Franklin provided the best evidence for
   the helical nature of DNA. Franklin's superb experimental work thus
   proved crucial in Watson and Crick's discovery.

   Prior to publication of the double helix structure, Watson and Crick
   had little interaction with Franklin. Crick and Watson felt that they
   had benefitted from collaborating with Wilkins. They offered him a
   co-authorship on the article that first described the double helix
   structure of DNA. Wilkins turned down the offer and was in part
   responsible for the terse character of the acknowledgement of
   experimental work done at King's College. Rather than make any of the
   DNA researchers at King's College co-authors on the Watson and Crick
   double helix article, the solution that was arrived at was to publish
   two additional papers from King's College along with the helix paper.
   Brenda Maddox suggested that because of the importance of her work to
   Watson and Crick's model building, Franklin should have had her name on
   the original Watson and Crick manuscript. Also, Franklin was not
   mentioned once in Watson and Crick's Nobel Prize speech.

   The wording on the new DNA sculpture outside Clare College's Thirkill
   Court, Cambridge, England is:

   On the base:
     * "These strands unravel during cell reproduction. Genes are encoded
       in the sequence of bases."
     * "The double helix model was supported by the work of Rosalind
       Franklin and Maurice Wilkins."

   On the helices:
     * "The structure of DNA was discovered in 1953 by Francis Crick and
       James Watson while Watson lived here at Clare."
     * "The molecule of DNA has two helical strands that are linked by
       base pairs Adenine - Thymine or Guanine - Cytosine."

Other controversies

   Watson is an outspoken man, but the enduring controversy of his life is
   how attribution was made for Wilkins and Franklin.

   Watson, who is an atheist, is known for his frank opinions on politics,
   religion, and the role of science in society. He has been considered to
   hold a number of controversial views.
   Dr. Watson signing autographs after a speech at Cold Spring Harbor
   Laboratory on April 30, 2007.
   Dr. Watson signing autographs after a speech at Cold Spring Harbour
   Laboratory on April 30, 2007.

   He is, for instance, a strong proponent of genetically modified crops,
   holding that the benefits far outweigh any plausible environmental
   dangers, and that many of the arguments against genetically modified
   crops are unscientific or irrational. His views on these matters are
   covered in some depth in his book DNA: The Secret of Life (2003),
   particularly in chapter 6.

   He has also repeatedly supported genetic screening and genetic
   engineering in public lectures and interviews, arguing for instance
   that the "really stupid" bottom 10% of people should be aborted before
   birth; that all girls should be genetically engineered to be pretty and
   has been quoted in The Sunday Telegraph as stating "that if the gene
   (for homosexuality) were discovered and a woman decided not to give
   birth to a child that may have a tendency to become homosexual, she
   should be able to abort the fetus." The biologist Richard Dawkins wrote
   a letter to The Independent claiming that Watson's position was
   misrepresented by The Sunday Telegraph article and that Watson also
   considered the possibility of having a heterosexual child to be a valid
   reason for abortion.

   Watson doesn't think much of the ambitiousness and energy of fat
   people, and is quoted as saying "Whenever you interview fat people, you
   feel bad, because you know you're not going to hire them"

   He has also been attacked for justifying anti-semitism, for advocating
   that certain racial, religious and ethnic groups' "numbers should be
   restricted", for claiming that blacks are genetically lazy and for
   advocating the infanticide of handicapped newborns .

   According to James Watson at the 2003 conference: DNA: "50 years of the
   Double Helix" held in Cambridge (England) in 2003 : (quote) "Now
   perhaps it's a pretty well kept secret that one of the most uninspiring
   acts of Cambridge University over this past century was to turn down
   Francis Crick when he applied to be the Professor of Genetics, in 1958.
   Now there may have been a series of arguments, which lead them to
   reject Francis. But it really was stupid. It was really saying, don't
   push us to the frontier. That's what it was saying." (conference
   transcript)

   Watson also had quite a few disagreements with Craig Venter regarding
   his use of EST fragments while Venter worked at NIH. Venter went on to
   found Celera genomics and continued his feud with Watson through the
   privately funded venture. Watson was even quoted as calling Venter
   Hitler (The Genome War, J. Shreeve)

   His major contribution to molecular biology in Cambridge is well
   documented in The History of the University of Cambridge: Volume 4
   (1870 to 1990) published by CUP in 1992.
   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_D._Watson"
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