History

Francis Crick 1916 – 2004 

Francis Harry Compton Crick was born on 8 June 1916 in Northampton, England. He was the elder child of Harry Crick and Annie Elizabeth Wilkins and was educated at Northampton Grammar School and then Mill Hill School, London.

Undergraduate and graduate studies in London...

Crick first studied physics obtaining a BSc in 1937 from University College London (UCL).

In 1940, he married Ruth Doreen Dodd; they were divorced in 1947. Their son, Michael FC Crick also became a scientist.

During the war...

At UCL, Crick started a physics PhD under Prof EN da C Andrade. However, in 1939, his studies were interrupted by the outbreak of the Second World War. During the War, he worked as a scientist for the British Admiralty, mainly in connection with magnetic and acoustic mines.

Studying biology in Cambridge at Strangeways Research Laboratory...

In 1947, Crick left the Admiralty wishing to study biology, although at this stage he knew no biology and practically no organic chemistry or crystallography.

Supported by a studentship from the Medical Research Council and with some financial help from his family, Crick moved to Cambridge to work at the Strangeways Research Laboratory.

During his time at Strangeways, he worked with Arthur Hughes on the physical properties of cytoplasm in cultured fibroblast cells. By 1949, he already had papers in press.

In 1949, Crick married Odile Speed. They had two daughters, Gabrielle A Crick and Jacqueline MT Crick.

Medical Research Council Unit and MRC LMB...

In 1949, Crick joined the Medical Research Council Unit headed by MF Perutz, of which he remained a member until his death. The Unit was for many years housed in the Cavendish Laboratory Cambridge, but in 1962 moved into a large new building - the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology - on the New (Addenbrooke's) Hospital site, which is close to Strangeways.

In 1950, Crick became a research student for the second time at Caius College, Cambridge.

During this period, together with W Cochran and V Vand, he worked out the general theory of X-ray diffraction by a helix, and at the same time as L Pauling and RB Corey, suggested that the alpha-keratin pattern was due to alpha-helices coiled round each other.

DNA structure, and James Watson...

A critical influence in Crick's career was his friendship, beginning in 1951, with James D Watson who was then a young man of 23 years. This led, in 1953, to the proposal of the double-helical structure for DNA and the replication scheme. This seminal piece of work was published in Nature in April 1953.

Crick and Watson subsequently suggested a general theory for the structure of small viruses.

In 1954, Crick finally obtained his PhD on a thesis entitled 'X-ray diffraction: polypeptides and proteins'.

After he obtained his PhD, Crick continued work to decipher the genetic code. Working with Watson, molecular biologist Sidney Brenner, physicist George Gamov and others, Crick showed how the sequence of four bases in DNA and RNA (ribonucleic acid) instructed the creation of the sequence of 20 basic amino acids which, it turn, coded for the thousands of proteins that direct the processes of life.

Nobel Prize...

In 1962, Crick, Watson and Wilkins were awarded the 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”.

Move to the USA...

By 1966, feeling that the foundations of the molecular biology were adequately outlined and that it was time for him to pursue other interests, Crick turned his attention to embryology. Then, in 1976, he went to the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California, for a sabbatical year from the Medical Research Council. The following year, after 30 years and 87 scientific papers, he decided to make a career change from the MRC and moved to the Salk Institute where he pursed his interest in the workings of the brain.

Awards

Crick won many awards and acknowledgements during his career including the following:

• 1959 Warren Triennial Prize Lecturer (along with James Watson)

• 1960 Lasker Foundation Award (along with James Watson, and Maurice Wilkins)

• 1961 Prix Charles Leopold Meyer of the French Academy of Sciences

• 1962 Merit of the Gairdner Foundation

• 1962 Elected Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a fellow of University College London.

• 1972 Royal Society’s Royal Medal

• 1976 Royal Society’s Copley Medal.

Crick continued publishing scientific papers and commentary until he died in San Diego on 28 July 2004 aged 88 years.

This brief biography was adapted from information on the MRC LMB website, Nobel Prize website, BBC website and Access Excellence

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