DNA structure anniversary marked

One of the most momentous discoveries of the 20th century will be remembered this week 60 years after scientists revealed the structure of DNA.

On Thursday a memorial to British biologist Francis Crick will be unveiled by American James Watson at the university where they worked six decades ago.

Together they described the double-helix structure of DNA in a seminal paper published in the journal Nature on April 25, 1953. Their work set the stage for a molecular revolution, opening up vast new avenues of understanding about the genetic code, or "Book of Life".

Dr Watson, now retired, went on to direct the US arm of the Human Genome Project from 1988 to 1992. In 2000 the HGP published a first draft of the complete human genetic code, marking another historic turning point.

Friends, former colleagues and admirers of Professor Crick, who died in 2004, will gather at his former Cambridge University college, Gonville and Caius, to view the unveiling. The event will be followed by a series of talks and tributes by leading experts and colleagues, including Dr Watson.

Dr Watson and Prof Crick's work on the structure of DNA earned them the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1962, which they shared with colleague Maurice Wilkins from King's College London.

The two men showed showed how DNA stored information using a four-letter molecular alphabet consisting of the letters A, T, C and G arranged in a double-helix. Three billion copies of these letters make up the entire human genome. Some are sorted into sequences called genes that provide the software instructions for making proteins and allow parental traits to be inherited.

Before the structure of DNA was unscrambled no one had a clear idea how genetic replication - one of the cornerstones of life - worked.

The discovery acted as a springboard that scientists have been jumping off ever since. Genetic research has transformed our understanding of the causes of cancer and other diseases and led to a multiplicity of new targeted treatments.

Dr Ted Bianco, acting director of the Wellcome Trust, which provided much of the funding for the Human Genome Project, said: "The discovery of the double helix is one of many great British breakthroughs in science. And we continue to be world leaders in the fields of genetics and genomics as these disciplines have grown and matured."

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DNA structure anniversary marked