Klug (Klug), Aaron

genus. August 11, 1926
English physicist and specialist in molecular biology, Aaron Klug was born in Zhelvase (Lithuania), in the family cattle trader Klug Lazar and Bella (Silin) Klug. When K. was two years, Kluge moved to Durban (South Africa), where his mother's family immigrated to the beginning of the century. From 1937 to 1941. K. studied at the Durban High School. It was in this period, the future scientist was born interest in science, especially after he read a book by American writer Paul de Krayfa 'Hunters for the microbes'.
Entering in 1942. Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg, K. began to attend a preparatory course in medicine, as well as classes in biochemistry, physics and mathematics. By that time, when in 1945. He graduated from University with a degree of bachelor of science, his interests have clearly defined: K. chose physics. Being engaged in the University of Cape Town for a dedicated his scholarship, he studied at one of his teachers, R.U. James, the method of X-ray crystallography. This method, developed U.L. Bragg and U.G. Bragg, lies in the fact that on a photographic plate displays paintings, formed when a beam of X-rays through the crystal. Since X-rays with a characteristic way rejected, the emerging pattern can be seen on the arrangement of atoms within the crystal. Received in 1946. the degree of Master of Science, K. remained in the University of Cape Town to continue his work with James on the study of organic compounds using X-ray diffraction. 'During this time - he recalled later - I have faced a serious interest in the structure of matter and how it arose. "
. The scholarship, established by the British exhibition of 1851, and a subsidy for research received from Trinity College at Cambridge University, allowed to
. in 1949. move to England. K. filed an application to place the researcher in the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge University, in cooperation with Max Perutz and John K. Kendrew work on establishing the structure of protein molecules using the method of X-ray crystallography. However, in the Cavendish Laboratory were no free seats, and K. under dP. Hartree began to study the molecular structure of steel. For this work he had in 1952. received his doctorate.
Turning to the Department of Colloid Chemistry, University of Cambridge, K. throughout 1953. investigated the biophysical processes in which oxygen and carbon dioxide exchange in hemoglobin. These studies have increased interest of scientists to x-ray analysis of biological molecules, and by the end of next year, he received a Nuffield Scholarship to work in Berbekskom College in London under the leadership Dzh.D. Bernal, a former teacher Perutz in Cambridge. Very short time to. studied the protein ribonuclease. During this work he met Rosalind Franklin, whose research on X-ray analysis of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) has helped in their time Francis Crick and James D. Watson set the structure (double helix) of this complex molecule.
Franklin had just started to study tobacco mosaic virus, which infects the leaves of tobacco. Despite the fact that the virus has been known to many - especially through the work carried out earlier by John X. Northrop and Wendell M. Stanley - its molecular structure is still remained unclear. Franklin received X-ray images, in which K. though with difficulty, but still managed to discern traces of curved layers, caused by a scientist of great interest, and it is connected to this work. After the death of Franklin in 1958. He became the leader of the research team to study the structure of the virus in Berbekskom College. Four years later, K. accepted the proposal of Crick's return to the University of Cambridge, this time as a member of the Medical Research Council of Molecular Biology,. Within a short time to. found that tobacco mosaic virus is a broad spiral structure with a repetitive protein, and the genetic material is located along the inner surface of the protein.
In the same period of time to. and his colleagues studied the viruses that cause polio. It was believed that they have a spherical shape, but their exact structure has not been installed. Relying on his knowledge of physics and X-ray analysis, K. developed a method called crystallographic electron microscopy, in which the image obtained with an electron microscope, exposed to laser light diffraction. Received as a result now you can then decrypt and establish the structure of the analyzed object.
This method of 'armed' to. not only a new technical approach, but also defined the process of research, which bind together the cellular and molecular organization. He could now examine complex biological systems, first articulated it from the cells, then got a detailed picture by X-ray and chemical analysis, and finally creating a complete image of the entire device with an electron microscope. In 1972. He began to apply this sequence in the analysis of chromatin, the compounds of histones (specific proteins) and DNA that form the chromosomes of highly organized organisms. In 1981. K. and his colleagues managed to prove that each of the many histone is a stubby cylindrical molecule, around which coiled coils in the area of unexploded DNA. Histones themselves so tightly wrapped in a ring that has only one thread of human DNA length of approximately 2 meters fit into the cell nucleus, whose diameter is less than a hundredth of a millimeter.
In 1982, Mr.. K. was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 'for the development of the method of crystallographic electron microscopy and clarify the structure of biologically important complexes of nucleic acid - protein'. In his opening remarks on behalf of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences BG. Melstrem said that the implementation by. 'the study of viruses has revealed important biological principle that the complex molecular aggregate in the cells are formed spontaneously from its components. Investigation of chromatin has a key to the structural control the reading of genetic information embedded in DNA. In the long term it will undoubtedly be crucial for understanding the nature of cancer. "
Since 1978, Mr.. K. becomes one of the leaders of the Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Medical Research Council in Cambridge. There he continued to conduct scientific work, faithful to the previously selected theme. K. Studies, as well as information on the results obtained by other scientists who use his methods to a large extent clarified the processes taking place inside living cells. K. absorbed in scientific work, much effort he has taken away and administrative duties. However, he tries as much time to give teaching. Short, thin, sharp-intellect, K. extremely popular among his students and colleagues.
In 1949, Mr.. scientist married Laibach Broubau. In the couple's two sons.
In addition to the Nobel Prize, K. awarded honorary degrees from Columbia, Chicago, Strasbourg and the University of Stockholm. He also awarded a Doctor X. P. Heineken Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (1979) and award-Louise Gross Horvitz of Columbia University (1981). K. - Member of the Royal Society of London and an honorary foreign member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.