"Project K"

Date:
1967-1974
Reference:
PP/CRI/H/4/12
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: "Project K". Source: Wellcome Collection.

    1/88
    PROJECT K: THE COMPLETE SOLUTION OF E. COLI* F. H. C. CRICK1 It is convenient to consider future developments in molecular biology (in the widest sense) under three headings: (a) studies on cell components, (b) studies on unicellular organisms, and (c) studies on multicellular organisms. The latter, although of great importance, will not be dealt with here. The division between cell components (which may come from any sort of cell) and organisms is admittedly arbitrary and is only introduced here to make the discussion easier. In practice, most work on complete organisms is supplemented by studies on the components of that organism. It is first necessary briefly to take stock of the present position. As far as classical biochemistry is concerned, many enzyme reactions are known, and for a minority of these the action of the pure enzyme is understood in outline. For no case have the details of the enzymatic action been firmly established in chemical terms. Within the field of molecular biology (in the narrow sense) we now understand in outline the synthesis of the nucleic acids and of proteins, their interrelation in the genetic code, and a little about their control mechanisms. It seems likely that future progress will take place in several broad areas: 1. The more detailed test-tube study of the structure and chemical action of biological molecules (especially proteins). Typical of such studies will be the detailed action of enzymes (already getting very close with the solution by X-ray crystallography of the structure of several enzymes), the way proteins fold themselves up (a backward field), the radiation damage to molecules, especially to DNA, and many other topics. It is character istic of these studies that they involve the application of complicated and advanced methods of physical chemistry to biological molecules, and often * The idea arose in conversation with Dr. Sydney Brenner, who invented the title Project K and whom I have to thank for useful discussions on the topic. This short paper was originally circulated in a European Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO) document [1] toward the end of 1967. It still seems to me to be an attractive scheme for people of the right temperament, and since EMBO is now unlikely to take it up I thought that it might be useful to give the idea wider publicity. t MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Hills Road, Cambridge, CB2 2QH, England.