DID YOU FORGET ME? - Rosalind Franklin

Did you forget me?  - Rosalind Franklin

Sujatha Ramasamy

Scientist,New Delhi.

All the biotechnologists initially start their career with three important alphabets of life “DNA”. But I will put you into a question, whom do you remember immediately after seeing these?

Most of you would tell James Watson and Francis Crick and some of you would vaguely remember Rosalind Franklin as a third name or even unaware about her contribution in the discovery of structure of DNA.

Rosalind Franklin made the most significant contribution to our science world but her contribution was overlooked and for many years went unrecognized. She was instrumental in discovering the structure of DNA, but until recently, many knew nothing of the contribution the x-ray crystallographer made. Her work was important for so many reasons – not only did it confirm that Watson and Crick’s structure was correct, it helped open the door to a whole new world of genetics, stem cell research and cloning. Which proves her work influenced everything we know about biology and related fields of study. She did not receive any noble prize instead, her male lab assistant did. This is quite interesting since behind the curtain the truth will awaken us. As you remember the DNA structure which is double helical structure the pattern was first discovered by Franklin in X-ray photographs she took in 1953.

Her student/lab partner Wilkins would later, without her knowledge, showed these photos to Watson and Crick, who were working on a model of DNA themselves. The day Franklin published her findings, Watson and Crick — in the same journal, no less — published their own, which were based on her work. She was forced to add a handwritten comment about their work to her manuscript before it was submitted. She, of course, was not credited in the men’s paper.

                                       

 That last statement is a little unfair. In 1692 noble prize was awarded to Maurice Wilkins, James Watson and Francis Crick for discovering the structure of DNA, but by then Franklin died of ovarian cancer in 1958, probably as a result of long-term exposure to X-ray radiation. On the other hand all these three men admitted that accomplishment would have been impossible without the information they stole from Franklin, ten years after her death.

Later her work was recognized in the form several awards and building being named after her – there is even the Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science in Chicago.

Rosalind Franklin died on 16 April 1958 of bronchopneumonia, secondary carcinomatosis and carcinoma of the ovary unaware of the legacy she left behind her. We could never imagine what she would have achieved if she were alive now and hadn’t died at the age of 37.

References:

1. Women in Science – Rosalind Elsie Franklin http://www.sdsc.edu/ScienceWomen/franklin.html

2. Rosalind Franklin http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosalind_franklin

3. The Double Helix A personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA by James D Watson (1968) pg 225-226

4. Rosalind Franklin http://www.femmagazine.com/2011/11/04/rosalind-franklin/