Jerry Donohue
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Jerry Donohue (June 12, 1920 — February 13, 1985) was a theoretical and physical chemist. He is best remembered for steering James D. Watson and Francis Crick towards the correct structure of DNA with some crucial information.
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[edit] Early career
Donohue was born in Sheboygan, Wisconsin and studied for his first two degrees at Dartmouth College, where he earned his A.B. in 1941 and his M.A. in 1943. He worked on his PhD under Linus Pauling at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), earning his doctorate in 1947. Donohue remained at Caltech until 1952.<ref name="bio">Biography. Retrieved on 2006-10-31.</ref>
[edit] Role in determining structure of DNA
Throughout his life Donohue specialized in crystal structures and analysis, specifically of molecules relating to biology and hydrogen-bonding. In 1952, Donohue was given a grant to study at Cambridge University and shared an office with Francis Crick and James D. Watson. In his work to determine the structure of DNA, Watson had been using structure for guanine from a monograph by James N. Davidson. Davidson had depicted these bases in the enol configuration and Watson used this structure in an unsuccessful 'like-with-like' pairing of the bases. Donohue informed Watson that the published structure was just a guess and that the keto structure was more likely, based on a publication of June Broomfield and quantum mechanical calculations.<ref> Watson, James (1968). The Double Helix. Weidenfeld & Nicolson (London). ISBN 0-5824-5181-7.</ref> <ref> Judson, Horace Freeland (1979). The Eighth Day of Creation. Touchstone (New York). ISBN 0-8796-9478-5.</ref> Within a few days, Watson and Crick were able to build their famous model for DNA. <ref name="bio" />
In their famous article by Watson and Crick in Nature that proposed the structure of DNA, the following acknowledgment to Donohue appears: "We are much indebted to Dr. Jerry Donohue for constant advice and criticism, especially on interatomic distances" <ref> Watson, JD &, Crick, FHC (1953). "Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid". Nature 171: 737-738. </ref> .
[edit] Later life
After Cambridge Donohue became Assistant Professor of Chemistry at the University of Southern California where he continued to specialize in hydrogen-bonding. In 1966 he was named to the Rhodes-Thompson Professorship in Chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania. He retired because of ill-health in 1985, and died that same year.<ref name="bio" />
He was married to Patricia Schreier. They had a son and a daughter.
[edit] Selected Publications
F.L. Tucker, J.W. Thomas, M.D. Appleman, S.H. Goodman, and J. Donohue. X-Ray Diffraction Studies on Metal Deposition in Group D Streptococci. J. Bacteriol., 92(5), 1311–1314 (1966).</br> J. Donohue, Structure of "Polywater". Science, 166(3908), 1000-1002 (1969).</br> A. Caron and J. Donohue. Redetermination of thermal motion and interatomic distances in urea. Acta Cryst., B25, 404 (1969).</br> J. Donohue. On The Structure of Fibrous Sulfur. Acta Cryst., B25, 2168 (1969).</br> J. Donohue. Crystal symmetry of deoxyribonucleic acid: On the validity of the use of intensity statistics on limited numbers of data. J. Mol. Biol., 41(2), 291-294 (1969).</br> G. Mandel and J. Donohue. The Crystal and Molecular Structure of Octachloro-2-4-dihydropentalene. Acta Cryst., B29, 710 (1969).</br> H.L. Carrell and J. Donohue. The Crystal and Molecular Structure of Dodecamethylcyclohexasilane. Acta Cryst., B28, 1566 (1972).</br> K.J. Hwang, J. Donohue, and C.-C. Tsai. The Crystal and Molecular Structure of 12-Methyl-11,13-dioxo-12-aza-pentacyclo[4.4.3.0.1,602,10.05,7]trideca-3,8-diene. Acta Cryst., B28, 1727 (1972).</br> R. Boggs and J. Donohue. Spermine copper(II) perchlorate. Acta Cryst., B31, 320-322 (1975).</br> J. Donohue and J.P. Chesick. The Crystal and Molecular Structure of Dicinnamyl Disulfide. Acta Cryst., B31, 986 (1975).</br> A. Robbins, G.A. Jeffrey, J.P. Chesick, J. Donohue, F.A. Cotton, B.A. Frenz and C.A. Murillo. A refinement of the crystal structure of tetraphenylmethane: three independent redeterminations. Acta Cryst., B31, 2395-2399 (1975).</br> G.T. DeTitta, J.W. Edmonds, W. Stallings, and J. Donohue. Molecular structure of biotin. Results of two independent crystal structure investigations. J. Am. Chem. Soc., 98(7), 1920-1926 (1976).</br> J. Donohue and B.S. Hayward. Crystal structures of two local anesthetics: dibucaine·HCl·H2O and dimethisoquin·HCl·H2O. II. Revised parameters, bond distances, and bond angles. J. Chem. Crystallogr., 10(5-6), 157-161 (1980).</br> A.B. Smith, III, J.L. Wood, C.J. Rizzo, G.T. Furst, P.J. Carroll, J. Donohue and S. Oreurn, (+)-Hitachimycin: stereochemistry and conformational analysis. J. Am. Chem. Soc., 114, 8003-8007 (1992).</br>
[edit] References
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