ROSALIND FRANKLIN: BIOGRAPHY, CONTRIBUTIONS, RECOGNITIONS, WORKS - ARTE - 2024

Rosalind Franklin (1920-1958) was a British scientist recognized for her work on the structure of DNA. Among her main contributions to this subject is the use of X-ray diffraction to obtain an image showing the double helix of DNA. In addition, she made important discoveries about coal and investigated several different viruses.

Franklin was born in 1920 in London and, from very early on, showed his great intelligence. Despite this, at first, her father opposed her studying science at the University, as he considered that it was not a suitable option for women. Her female relatives, on the other hand, supported the young woman in her decision.

Rosalind Franklin - Source: MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology - Personal Collection of Jenifer Glynn CC BY-SA 4.0

That confrontation with his father, who later changed his mind, was not the only one that Franklin had to face due to the machismo of the society of the time. His own most famous discovery was long ignored and it was his male colleagues who took all the credit.

The scientist, who never stopped working, passed away at a very young age. At just 37 years old, Franklin died of cancer. Some of her biographers claim that exposure to X-rays in her experiments could be one of the causes of the appearance of the disease.

Biography

Rosalind Elsie Franklin was born on July 25, 1920 in London, England. Her family was well-positioned economically, something that allowed the young woman to carry out her studies in several prestigious centers.

His first school was Norland Place School. Later, at the age of 9, she entered the Lindores School for Young Ladies, a boarding school located in Sussex. The delicate health of the girl was one of the reasons for the change of location, since Sussex was on the coast, in an environment considered healthier.

Two years later, Franklin changed schools again. On that occasion she entered St. Paul's School for Girls. At just eleven years old, the young woman began to obtain great academic results in science and in the study of Latin. In addition, she learned to speak French fluently.

Studies in Cambridge

When he was fifteen, Franklin passed the exam to enter Newnham College, Cambridge and pursue his university career there. At first, her father objected to that decision and withdrew her assignment, as he considered that women should not study at university.

It was the women in his family, especially his maternal aunt, who took care of Franklin's expenses. A short time later, the father ended up accepting Rosalind's decision and paid the cost of the race again.

His performance at the university was remarkable and, in 1941, he graduated in physics and chemistry. As soon as he finished, he received a scholarship to carry out his doctoral thesis.

Second World War

The outbreak of World War II caused a pause in Franklin's thesis. Although, at first, the scientist began to collaborate with the laboratory of physicochemistry at the University of Cambridge, supervised by future Nobel Prize winner Ronald Norrish, she soon changed her workplace.

After resigning from the laboratory, in 1942 Franklin began working for the British Association for Research on the Use of Coal, an important body for the country during the world conflict.

During that stage, Franklin lived with a French physicist who had taken refuge in England from the war: Adrianne Weill. Later, she moved in with her cousin Irene Franklin and they both participated in organizing the patrols that patrolled the streets when Germany was bombing the city.

Paris

After the war was over, Franklin asked her friend Adrianne Weill to help her find a job. Her words were that she was looking for an occupation for "a physicochemist who knows very little about physicochemistry and a lot about holes in coal."

In 1946, Weill invited Franklin to a conference and took the occasion to introduce him to the director of the French National Center for Scientific Research, Marcel Mathieu. Thanks to this contact, the following year the British scientist began to work at the Central Laboratory of State Chemical Services in Paris.

One of the advantages that Franklin found in this new job was the lack of rejection of women scientists, especially compared to the situation in England.

In the French laboratory, Franklin became one of the world's leading experts in the technique of X-ray diffraction. This knowledge was essential for her later work with DNA.

King's College

After three years in Paris, Franklin returned to London in 1950, after he was awarded a scholarship to work at King's College. The scientist joined her new position in January 1951.

Although, at first, he had to dedicate himself to using X-ray diffraction on proteins and lipids, his boss, John Randall, decided that he would investigate DNA fibers.

That change of assignment occurred even before Franklin joined the center, as they wanted to take advantage of his qualities to complete the research on the subject that Maurice Wilkins and Raymond Gosling were carrying out. The latter, a doctoral student, was appointed his assistant.

Rosalind Franklin, along with Gosling, focused their work on improving a device to achieve sharp images of DNA. The first tests demonstrated the success obtained.

On the other hand, although King's College was not the scientific center most hostile to women, Franklin did find that women were considered less valuable than men. Some rules, such as not being able to share the rest area and cafeteria, made her uncomfortable.

Unauthorized use of your work

Rosalind Franklin presented the first results of her research at a conference in November 1951. Her laboratory partner, Maurice Wilkins, with whom she did not get along very well, had invited two scientists who were also investigating the structure of DNA: Francis Crick and James D. Watson.

It was in that talk that these two scientists learned about Franklin's work and, it is suspected, began to use his data. Over the next several months, Wilkins reportedly showed his two colleagues Franklin's DNA images. He did it, too, without his knowledge or permission.

Among the images Watson and Crick saw of Wilkins' hand was photograph number 51, in which the DNA double helix was appreciated. Watson himself said years later: "As soon as I saw the photo my jaw dropped and my pulse quickened."

With Franklin's images, plus the data she had presented at the conference and others that Wilkins provided, Watson and Cricks published their hypothesis on the structure of DNA in the journal Nature in 1953.

Article in Nature

The work published by Watson and Crick in Nature did not contain any reference to Franklin's work. The only sentence in which the name of the scientist appeared read: "… we have been stimulated by the knowledge of the general nature of unpublished experimental results and the ideas of Wilkins, Franklin and their collaborators…"

In that same issue of Natura there was an article signed by Rosalind Franklin and Raymond Gosling. It was an article with many technical details about her method of photographing DNA and included the well-known photograph 51. In addition, the author supported the theory of Crick and Watson.

Birkbeck College

Eventually, the tension with Watson, Crick and Wilkins and the macho environment at King's College caused Franklin to leave his post. Her professional destination was Birbeck College, another laboratory located in London.

In this laboratory, directed by John Bernal, Franklin conducted research on viruses. Some of them, such as those related to the tobacco mosaic virus or the polio virus, are still a reference for experts.

Disease

During a trip to the United States in 1956, Franklin began to feel ill. The diagnosis confirmed the seriousness of her condition, since she suffered from ovarian cancer. Despite having to undergo several operations and chemotherapy, the researcher continued working for another two years

In 1958, he was awarded a fellowship to the United States National Institute of Health. Her merits were recognized and the budget for her research was the highest received by any Birkbeck scientist.

Death

Rosalind Franklin was unable to begin her work in the American laboratory. At the end of 1957 she had suffered a significant relapse in her disease and on April 6 she died in London when she was only 37 years old.

Contributions and discoveries

Although Rosalind Franklin was the author of important research on the structure of carbon and on the RNA of some viruses, her greatest contribution to science was her findings on DNA. This field includes photograph 51, the sharpest taken to date and which showed the DNA double helix.

DNA imaging

After her stay in Paris, Franklin had become one of the greatest experts in X-ray diffraction. When she began working at King's College, she used this knowledge to obtain images of DNA.

The scientist began to experiment with her technique for taking images and, in no time, obtained the well-known photograph 51. In this one could see the characteristic double helix structure of DNA.

In addition to taking the image, Franklin made some measurements and recorded his observations in his lab notebooks. These data would be essential for Watson and Crick to develop their theory about DNA.

Studies on coal

Franklin began researching the characteristics of coal during World War II. Although the material was well known, its molecular structure had not yet been detailed in depth.

One of the questions Franklin's research clarified was why some types of coal were more permeable to water or gases than others.

In addition, he also conducted studies on the relationship between porosity and carbonization temperature and identified and measured fine porosity. This allowed the coals to be classified according to their behavior.

These works were reflected in several articles published between 1946 and 1949. Proof of their importance is that they are still cited by experts.

Works on viruses

Already at Birkbeck College, the last laboratory he worked in before his death, Franklin focused on the study of RNA from tobacco mosaic viruses and polio.

In these investigations, he again used X-ray crystallography, a method that provided him with sharp images of the tobacco mosaic virus.

His great discovery in this field was that the virus in question was hollow and only made up of one strand of RNA. The confirmation of this hypothesis did not arrive until after the death of the scientist.

Awards and honours

Although Rosalind Franklin's work has been recognized internationally, these honors have come to her over the past two decades. In her time, her contribution was practically ignored by her colleagues.

Thus, when Watson and Crick presented their model of the structure of DNA, they invited Wilkins to sign the article as a co-author. However, he did not accept, as he had not participated in the discovery. However, Franklin, whose contribution was critical, was not invited to sign the article.

Nobel Prize

According to his biographers, Franklin passed away unaware of the importance of his research in the work presented by Watson and Crick.

Both scientists were awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1962 for their work on DNA. During the collection of the award, neither of them mentioned Franklin.

Despite the controversy, the truth is that the Nobel rules prohibit giving the prize posthumously, so Franklin could not have received it. However, there is consensus that, had he been alive, he would have deserved to win the award together with his two professional colleagues.

Posthumous recognitions

Already in the 80s of the last century the scientific contribution of Rosalind Franklin began to be recognized. However, it was from the 90s when this recognition became general.

In 1992, for example, English Heritage put a plaque on the house where Franklin lived in London. The following words were engraved on it: "Rosalind Franklin, 1920-1958, pioneer in the study of molecular structures, including DNA, lived here in 1951-1958."

In addition, in 2001, the National Cancer Institute of the United States created an award that bears her name to recognize cancer researchers.

Two years later, the Royal Society of London created another award named after him for outstanding research in any scientific or technological field.

Published works

- Bangham, DH and Rosalind E. Franklin (1946), Thermal expansion of coals and carbonised coals.

- Franklin, RE (1950), "On the structure of carbon", Journal de Chimie Physique et de Physico-Chimie Biologique

- RE Franklin and RG Gosling. Molecular configuration of the sodium salt of deoxyribonucleic acid extracted from the thymus. Nature 171: 740–741. (April 25, 1953).

- REFranklin and RG Gosling. Evidence of a double helix chain in the crystal structure of the sodium salt of deoxyribonucleic acid. Nature Magazine 172: 156-157. (July 25, 1953).

- Franklin, Rosalind and KC Holmes. The Helical Arrangement of the Protein Sub-Units in Tobacco Mosaic Virus.

- Franklin, Rosalind, Donald LD Caspar and Aaron Klug. Chapter XL: The Structure of Viruses as Determined by X-Ray Diffraction

References

1. Vonne, Lara. Rosalind Franklin, the woman who discovered the structure of life. Obtained from hypertextual.com
2. BBC Mundo newsroom. Rosalind Franklin, the forgotten scientist behind the discovery of the structure of DNA, one of the most important for modern medicine. Retrieved from bbc.com
3. Fresquet Febrer, José L. Rosalind Franklin (1920-1958). Obtained from historiadelamedicina.org
4. The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. Rosalind Franklin. Retrieved from britannica.com
5. Biography.com Editors. Rosalind Franklin Biography. Retrieved from biography.com
6. Bagley, Mary. Rosalind Franklin: Biography & Discovery of DNA Structure. Retrieved from livescience.com
7. Klug, Aaron. Franklin, Rosalind Elsie. Recovered from oxforddnb.com