Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA
Image via the Wikimedia Foundation
The unsung pioneer of disease-causing viruses, including SARS-CoV-2
While controversy surrounding women in medicine is nothing new, British chemist and researcher, Rosalind Franklin, PhD, could be considered one of the most controversial to date. Dr. Franklin’s life and work were heavily criticized by her mostly male colleagues, and any recognition she did receive came well after her death from ovarian cancer in 1958.
Dr. Franklin began her impressive career studying physics and chemistry at Newnham Women’s College at Cambridge University. She then worked for the British Coal Utilization Research Association (BCURA) analyzing carbon and graphite microstructures—research that underpinned the doctoral degree she received from Cambridge in 1945.
Several years later, Dr. Franklin received a Turner and Newall fellowship and joined John T. Randall’s biophysics unit at King’s College in London. Though initially tasked with creating an X-ray crystallography unit, Randall asked that she instead shift her attention to the molecular structure of DNA—a fortuitous turn as her work uncovered properties leading to the discovery of DNA’s double helix structure, solving a significant biological riddle.
But no good deed goes unpunished. In 1962, three male colleagues, using Dr. Franklin’s contributions, shared the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for their discovery of the double helix. Though she’d helped revolutionize the world’s understanding of DNA, none of the men gave Dr. Franklin any credit—though one later suggested she deserved the Nobel for chemistry, were it not for the ban on posthumous nominations.
It’s quite likely that Dr. Franklin’s legacy would have died a quiet death had one of the Nobel winners not criticized her in his memoir as “a bad-tempered, arrogant bluestocking who jealously guarded her data from colleagues, even though she was not competent to interpret it.” Though many protested this treatment of Dr. Franklin, it was her friend, Anne Sayre, who published a furious rebuttal and brought some attention back to Dr. Franklin’s discovery.
Still, while Dr. Franklin’s DNA research was widely thought to be Nobel-worthy, she continued to be mostly overlooked, prompting her biographer, Brenda Maddox, to dub her “The Dark Lady of DNA”—based partly on a disparaging reference a coworker once made about Dr. Franklin, and partly because her contribution to a crucial, groundbreaking discovery has been kept in the dark.
A Multifaceted Scientist
Though Dr. Franklin’s work on DNA was remarkable, it’s only one part of her overall legacy. She was an expert on disease-causing viruses and made important advances in the science of coal and carbon. Because of Dr. Franklin’s dedication and hard work, today’s medical community has tools such as DNA sequencing and X-ray crystallography to investigate viruses—including SARS-CoV-2.
Had Dr. Franklin’s life not been tragically cut short, there’s no doubt she’d have continued changing the face of medicine. And though her brilliant career in science still hasn’t been given its full due, if you were to visit London’s Willesden Jewish Cemetery today, you’d see these words engraved on Dr. Franklin’s tombstone:
Scientist. Her research and discoveries on viruses remain of lasting benefit to mankind.
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