In 1953, Francis Crick and his research colleague James Watson decoded the molecular structure of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), i.e. the structure of the genetic material, and developed a spatial model of the double helix. This discovery is still regarded today as a revolution in molecular biology, which was also decisive for developments in genetic engineering.
The two researchers demonstrated that DNA consists of two rows of molecules that, lying opposite each other, twist into a double strand known as the double helix. On February 28, 1953, Watson and Crick assembled the first model of the double helix from wire and cardboard at the Cavendish Laboratory (Medical Research Council Unit for the Study of the Molecular Structure of Biological Systems) in Cambridge, United Kingdom.
Secret of life in DNA
For the first time, they thus created a plastic picture of how the genetic material of organisms is actually structured: in the form of two intertwined rope ladder molecules with only 4 elements – the bases adenine (A) and thymine (T), and guanine (G) and cytosine (C). The Crick-Watson model laid the foundation for insight into the structure of life.
In 1962, the two Cambridge researchers were awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine along with Maurice Wilkins, who had introduced the scientists to the measurement method of X-ray crystallography.
Progress over the past 50 years
On the basis of Crick’s and Watson’s discovery, all further progress in genetic engineering was based. Industrial production of insulin from genetically modified bacteria became possible. First children conceived outside the womb were born. The first gene therapy on humans could be performed, and in February 2001, the Human Genome Project (HUGO) and the company Celera Genomics announced that they had now identified 99 percent of the human genome.
