crick - double helix - Nobel prize - consciousness - claustrum
crick - dupla hélice - prêmio Nobel - consciência - claustrum
Neurosciences, particularly neurology, have made great strides in recent years, most
notably in the fields of genetics and molecular biology, where a significant number
of discoveries have been made, including new genes, proteins and neuronal signaling
mechanisms. This genuine revolution in neurology started in the 1950s and was given
impetus by the discovery of the structure of DNA, with the publication of the study
by Watson and Crick in 1953 and the awarding of the Nobel prize to the authors and
Maurice Wilkins in 1962[1]
,
[2]. The aim of this article is to review the career of the physicist, biologist and
neuroscientist Francis H. C. Crick and the brilliant contributions he made to science.
A SHORT BIOGRAPHY
Francis Harry Compton Crick ([Figure 1]) was born on June 8th, 1916, to Harry Crick and Annie Elizabeth Crick (née Wilkins), both from middle-class
families, in Weston Favell, a village near Northampton in the United Kingdom. In the
biography written by Olby, Crick observed that there were no scientists in his family
and recalls that his father once said, “at least none of them was hanged!”[1]. After attending Northampton Grammar School and Mill Hill School, Crick graduated
in physics from University College London in 1939. Between 1940 and 1947 he was hired
as a Civilian Scientist in the Royal Navy, and in 1947 he started research in biology
at the Strangeways Research Laboratory in Cambridge and, in 1949, at the Medical Research
Council (MRC) unit, in the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge[1]. The following year, he became a PhD student at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge[1]. In 1951, he published his first scientific papers, initially on the structure of
proteins, and then began his studies of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). In 1953, the
classic paper “Molecular structure of nucleic acids; a structure for deoxyribose nucleic
acid” by Watson and Crick was published in the journal Nature (April 25th)[2]. Together with his coworkers James Watson and Maurice Wilkins, he was awarded the
Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1962 for discovering the structure of DNA.
Famous all around the world, Crick became involved in many different research activities
in different universities in the USA (Harvard, The Salk Institute), Europe (Denmark,
Sweden and Germany) and Russia. In 1977 he started work at the Salk Institute, California,
where he remained until his death on July 28th, 2004[1].
Figure 1 Francis Crick (1916–2004).Extracted from en.wikipedia.org, December 27th, 2015.
DNA – THE DOUBLE HELIX AND THE NOBEL PRIZE
DNA – THE DOUBLE HELIX AND THE NOBEL PRIZE
The article by Watson and Crick published in the April 1953 edition of Nature showing clearly and accurately the molecular structure of deoxyribose nucleic acid
(DNA), the molecule of life, was the crowning achievement of research Crick started
in 1951 with a much younger American biologist by the name of James D. Watson[1]. The first attempts to determine the structure of DNA proved unsuccessful. However,
two years later, the two researchers were joined in their efforts by other important
scientists, including Maurice F. Wilkins, a contemporary of Crick, and Rosalind Franklin,
a British biophysicist, whose X-ray diffraction studies made a vital, yet little-recognized,
contribution[1]. The period 1951 to 1953 was one of great scientific competition as various groups,
including those led by Erwin Chargaff and especially Linus Pauling in the USA, sought
tirelessly to discover the structure of DNA[1]. The second attempt by Crick and Watson to do so was a success, and their famous
article, which was some 600 words long, was published in Nature in 1953 ([Figure 2])[1]
,
[2]. As a result of this study and various others related to the discovery of the DNA
double helix published by Crick and collaborators, the Nobel Prize for Physiology
or Medicine was awarded jointly to Crick, Watson and Wilkins in 1962[1].
Figure 2 DNA – the double helix2.Extracted from blog.red-lane.bolton.sch.uk, December 27th, 2015.
CRICK AND THE CLAUSTRUM
After Crick moved to the USA to work at the Salk Institute, in San Diego, California,
he became very interested in neuroscience, particularly the neurobiological theory
of consciousness[1]. Working with a young scientist of German descent, Christof Koch, Crick began to
study the role of the claustrum as the key structure in producing consciousness. The
claustrum (meaning “hidden away”), whose function has yet to be fully elucidated,
is a long, thin, subcortical, band-like gray-matter structure in the telencephalon
of the brain of all mammals. It is a mysterious, thin, irregular sheet of neurons
between the external and extreme capsulae and the insular cortex and striatum (putamen)[1]
,
[3]. It is reciprocally connected with all cortical areas, including the motor, somatosensory,
visual, auditory and limbic areas, and receives modulatory input from subcortical
structures. Several researchers believe the claustrum performs sensory integration
or modulation of cortical functional networks, and Crick and Koch proposed the analogy
of a conductor coordinating the players in an orchestra[1]
,
[3]
,
[4]
,
[5]
,
[6]. In 1994, Crick published a book with the title “The Astonishing Hypothesis” and
the subtitle “The Scientific Search for the Soul”[1]. Subsequently, in 2004, he wrote the foreword to the book “Quest for Consciousness”
by Koch[1]. In both books the authors focus on the search for a neural basis for consciousness
and suggest that the claustrum plays a key role in this[1]. Later studies reinforced this idea[7]
,
[8]. In 2004, at the age of 88 and much weakened because of treatment for cancer of
the colon, Crick still had time to correct the last version of a paper he wrote with
Koch that was published posthumously in 2005 under the title “What is the function
of the claustrum?” ([Figure 3])[9].
Figure 3 Crick and Koch and the claustrum.
CONCLUSION
The scientist Francis Crick, who would have been 100 in 2016, was awarded the Nobel
prize in 1962. He was a gifted researcher who made various contributions to science,
initially in the fields of physics and biology and then in genetics, with the fantastic
discovery of the DNA double helix, and finally in neuroscience, with his study of
the claustrum and its relationship to consciousness[10].
