X-ray diffraction studies of the DNA molecule. WILKINS, MAURICE. (1916-2004). et. al. Group of nine offprints on molecular biology. 1953-63. Group of nine offprints on molecular biology (one offprint in two parts), as listed below. Eight of the nine are SIGNED by Wilkins; several are also SIGNED by Wilkins's collaborator Herbert R. Wilson (1929-2008). Provenance: one offprint is from the library of Max Perutz (1914-2002); one offprint is from the library of Aaron Klug (1926-2018). See below for individual condition statements. FIRST EDITIONS, OFFPRINT ISSUES. Wilkins received a share of the 1962 Nobel Prize in physiology / medicine (along with James Watson and Francis Crick) for his x-ray diffraction studies of the DNA molecule, which revealed its basic double-helical structure. This offprint collection includes one of Wilkins's first papers on x-ray analysis of DNA (no. 1), together with several offprints on DNA structure published in the decade following the discovery of the double helix. As noted above, all but one of the offprints are signed by Wilkins, and many of these also bear the signature of Herbert R. Wilson, a co-author, together with A. R. Stokes, on Wilkins's Molecular structure of deoxypentose nucleic acids (Nature 171 [April 1953]), his contribution to the famous three-part paper announcing Watson and Crick's discovery of the helical structure of DNA. One of the offprints (no. 2 below) is from the library of Max Perutz, winner of the 1962 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for solving the structure of hemoglobin; another (no. 5 below) is from the library of Aaron Klug, who received the Nobel Prize in 1982 for 'his development of crystallographic electron microscopy and his structural elucidation of biologically important nucleic acid-protein complexes' (Wikipedia). 1. (With J. T. Randall). Crystallinity in sperm heads: Molecular structure of nucleoprotein in vivo. Offprint from Biochimica et biophysica acta 10 (1953). (244 x 166 mm) Text illustrations. Single sheet, unbound. SIGNED by Wilkins. One of Wilkins' first papers on X-ray analysis of DNA, submitted for publication on November 27, 1952. The X-ray photograph that it reproduces vaguely suggests a helical structure for DNA but only in the most ambiguous way. Wilkins, a member of John Randall's biophysics research program at King's College, London, began performing x-ray diffraction studies of DNA in the early 1950s after accidentally discovering how to spin the very thin uniform fibers of DNA required for this type of analysis. In 1950 he and Raymond Gosling became the first to obtain diffraction photographs of DNA in crystalline form, but due to various difficulties did not continue with this line of research until 1952, by which time Watson, Crick, and Rosalind Franklin had entered the picture. By this time there was sufficient evidence to indicate that the structure of the DNA molecule was probably helical, but it was still unclear as to whether such a structure occurred within the cell or was simply an artifact of preparation. Working with squid sperm, 'which occurs in bundles remarkable for the perfection of the parallel array of cells,' Wilkins performed x-ray studies 'that showed, he believed, that DNA in intact cells was helical, too' (Judson, pp. 95-96). At the end of the brief paper Wilkins credits Raymond Gosling for taking some of the X-ray photographs and Miss R. E. Franklin for 'discussion.' In 1953 Rosalind Franklin, who had far greater skill with the X-ray photographic equipment, would take the famous photograph of the B form of DNA that convinced Watson and Crick that the structure was in fact helical. 2. (With M. Feughelman, R. Langridge, W. E. Seeds, A. R. Stokes, H. R, Wilson, C. W. Hooper, R. K. Barclay, L. D. Hamilton). Molecular structure of deoxyribose nucleic acid and nucleoprotein. Offprint from Nature 175 (1955). (213 x 140 mm). Text illustrations. Without wrappers as issued. SIGNED by Wilkins and H. R. Wilson; stamp of Max Perutz (1914-2002). 'Information about the structure of dexoyribose nucleoprotein has been scanty and it has been suggested that deoxyribose nucleic acid may not be closely combined with protein. This communication describes in a preliminary way x-ray diffraction and molecular model-building studies which show that a helical structure of deoxyribose nucleic acid involving the base-pairing of Watson and Crick can be used to explain very satisfactorily a large amount of observed data. It is also shown that deoxyribose nucleoprotein is definitely a compound of protein with nucleic acid' (p. 1). This is the first paper listed in Robert Langridge's select bibliography published in http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/home/rl/publications.html. Langridge, a doctoral student of Wilkins's, was the first to apply a stored-program digital computer to the analysis of DNA structure, as described in his PhD. thesis (1957). The present paper makes no mention of computer-assisted analysis, referring instead to the use of Bessel tables. 3. Physical studies of the molecular structure of deoxyribose nucleic acid and nucleoprotein. Offprint from Cold Spring Harbor Symposia on Quantitative Biology 21 (1956). (272 x 200 mm). Text illustrations. Without wrapper as issued, light fraying. SIGNED by Wilkins and H. R. Wilson. 4. (With R. Langridge, W. E. Seeds, H. R. Wilson, C. W. Hooper and L. D. Hamilton). Molecular structure of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). Offprint from Journal of Biophysical and Biochemical Cytology 3 (1957). (255 x 176 mm). Text illustrations. Without wrappers as issued. SIGNED by Wilkins and H. R. Wilson. Further studies on both the A and B configuration of the DNA molecule, the A configuration existing when relative humidity of the atmosphere surrounding a fiber consisting of a DNA salt is reduced from 90-85 percent to 75 percent, and the B configuration existing when the DNA molecule is bound to protein in cells. The paper briefly alludes to the fact that an IBM 650 computer was used to process some of the data; Langridge, the lead author of this paper and Wilkins's doctoral student, was the first to apply a stored-program digital computer to the analysis of DNA structure (as recorded in Langridge's PhD. dissertation, published the same year as the present paper). 5. (With D. A. Marvin, M. Spencer and L. D. Hamilton). A new configuration of deoxyribonucleic acid. Offprint from Nature 182 (1958). [3]pp. Text illustrations. 214 x 141 mm. Without wrappers as issued. Signed by Wilkins and Aaron Klug (1926-2018). 6. (With L. D. Hamilton, R. K. Barclay, G. L. Brown, H. R. Wilson, D. A. Marvin, H. Ephrussi-Taylor and N. S. Simmons). Similarity of the structure of DNA from a variety of sources. Offprint from Journal of Biophysical and Biochemical Cytology 5 (1959). (258 x 170 mm). 8 plates. Original printed wrappers. SIGNED by Wilkins and H. R. Wilson. The authors showed, by comparing DNA x-ray diffraction patterns from diverse species and tissues, that the patterns were the same; 'the presently observable structure of DNA appears, then, to be the same in all cells' (p. 397). The data obtained by the authors' investigations 'suggests that DNA cannot exist in significant amounts in forms other than the double-helix' and that 'the double helical structure of DNA exists in the cell and is not an artifact' (p. 397). Most of the illustrations show comparisons of DNA x-ray diffraction patterns from different sources. 7. (With R. Langridge, H. R. Wilson, C. W. Hooper and L. D. Hamilton). The molecular configuration of deoxyribon For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing