Nobel Prizes for 3D Molecular Structure: Difference between revisions
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* 1962 [http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1962/index.html Francis Harry Compton Crick, James Dewey Watson, and Maurice Hugh Frederick Wilkins] (Physiology or Medicine) "for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material". Although Watson and Crick's 1953 model<ref>Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid. J. D. WATSON, F. H. C. CRICK, Nature 171, 737 - 738, 1953. [http://www.exploratorium.edu/origins/coldspring/ideas/printit.html Free annotated PDF from the Exploratorium].</ref> was theoretical, based in part on X-ray fiber diffraction, it was essentially correct, and for the first time explained the ability of genes to be faithfully copied during cell division. It was not confirmed by atomic resolution X-ray crystallography until 1973, using RNA dinucleotide crystals<ref name='berman'>Nucleic acid crystallography: a view from the nucleic acid database. Berman HM, Gelbin A, Westbrook J. Prog Biophys Mol Biol. 66:255-88, 1996. [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9284453 PubMed 9284453]</ref>. A full turn of B form DNA was not solved until 1980 ([[1bna|1BNA]])<ref name='berman' />, 27 years after Watson and Crick's model. | * 1962 [http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1962/index.html Francis Harry Compton Crick, James Dewey Watson, and Maurice Hugh Frederick Wilkins] (Physiology or Medicine) "for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material". Although Watson and Crick's 1953 model<ref>Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid. J. D. WATSON, F. H. C. CRICK, Nature 171, 737 - 738, 1953. [http://www.exploratorium.edu/origins/coldspring/ideas/printit.html Free annotated PDF from the Exploratorium].</ref> was theoretical, based in part on X-ray fiber diffraction, it was essentially correct, and for the first time explained the ability of genes to be faithfully copied during cell division. It was not confirmed by atomic resolution X-ray crystallography until 1973, using RNA dinucleotide crystals<ref name='berman'>Nucleic acid crystallography: a view from the nucleic acid database. Berman HM, Gelbin A, Westbrook J. Prog Biophys Mol Biol. 66:255-88, 1996. [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9284453 PubMed 9284453]</ref>. A full turn of B form DNA was not solved until 1980 ([[1bna|1BNA]])<ref name='berman' />, 27 years after Watson and Crick's model. X-ray diffraction data obtained by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosalind_franklin Rosalind E. Franklin] (1920-1958) played an important role in Crick, Wilkins and Watson's model building, but she regrettably received inadequate credit in the 1953 publication<ref>Rosalind Franklin: Dark Lady of DNA by Brenda Maddox, HarperCollins, 2002</ref>. | ||
* 1972: [http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1972/index.html Christian B. Anfinsen, Stanford Moore, and William H. Stein] (Chemistry). Anfinsen "for his work on ribonuclease, especially concerning the connection between the amino acid sequence and the biologically active conformation", and Moore and Stein "for their contribution to the understanding of the connection between chemical structure and catalytic activity of the active centre of the ribonuclease molecule". This prize was '''not for structure determination''', but rather, in part, for determining the amino acids essential to the active site of the enzyme before the structure was determined. The structure of ribonuclease was reported independently by two groups in 1967<ref name='earliest'>References and [[PDB codes]] will be found at [http://www.umass.edu/microbio/rasmol/1st_xtls.htm Earliest Solutions for Macromolecular Crystal Structures].</ref>. It was the second enzyme structure to be solved, after lysozyme<ref name='earliest' />, and did not earn a Nobel prize. | * 1972: [http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1972/index.html Christian B. Anfinsen, Stanford Moore, and William H. Stein] (Chemistry). Anfinsen "for his work on ribonuclease, especially concerning the connection between the amino acid sequence and the biologically active conformation", and Moore and Stein "for their contribution to the understanding of the connection between chemical structure and catalytic activity of the active centre of the ribonuclease molecule". This prize was '''not for structure determination''', but rather, in part, for determining the amino acids essential to the active site of the enzyme before the structure was determined. The structure of ribonuclease was reported independently by two groups in 1967<ref name='earliest'>References and [[PDB codes]] will be found at [http://www.umass.edu/microbio/rasmol/1st_xtls.htm Earliest Solutions for Macromolecular Crystal Structures].</ref>. It was the second enzyme structure to be solved, after lysozyme<ref name='earliest' />, and did not earn a Nobel prize. | ||