August 11, 1926 - Birth of Aaron Klug, Nobel Prize used X-ray diffraction to decipher protein complexes in nucleic acid

At the University of the Witwatersrand, he studied medicine and biochemistry, also furthering his education in physics and mathematics, eventually graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree. He then studied crystallography at the University of Cape Town before moving to England.

In 1953, he joined Birkbeck College, London, where he began working with Rosalind Franklin studying tobacco mosaic virus. Rosalind's untimely death at the age of 34 led Klug to take over the leadership of the research group and he extended his studies to spherical viruses.

In the 1970s, he employed X-ray diffraction patterning methods which, combined with electron microscopy, allowed him to decipher nucleic acid-protein complexes, as well as imaging at different angles, achieving three-dimensional reconstructions of some proteins. In 1974, together with his collaborators, Klug became the first to collect the crystals of an RNA transfer and determine their structure.

In 1982 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work in the field of crystallographic electron microscopy.

If you want to know more about this scientist, click on the following link: Aaron Klug

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