A-12 Santa Barbara, Calif., News-Press, Wednesday, Jan. 22, 1986    CC
__-.-_                                            --_---
obel laureate predicts medical discoveries

t3y Karen O'Hara
Mews-Prers Staff Wrltsr

YLmkinri car! expect 3 flood of
,r~w!iral ,rdvarlr~c:; toward the end of
thib century. possibly including
mws tar AIDS and cancer, a Nobel
iJr;ztl-winning scientist told Santa
i~arbara physictans Tuesday night.

l-`rancis Crick, a British biochem-
1st. oredicted many of the advances
$5 Ii : i,r built upon the discoveries
~ir;t~. earned him the 1962 Nobel
Vt'iztb in medicine and physiology.

.*Tl~r techniques are powerful and
:hr, rc~suits are promising for medi-
al application,' Crick said during
.I rhnncr at Cottage Hospital spon-
s:~t:d by the county Medical Soci-
i,tv s Education Foundation.

However, the genetics researcher
-Icld4. the layman's notion of ClOn-
:ili: probably will remain more in
:.`lt' rcalnl of science fiction in this
i'elltur~y

What they mean is taking a gene
.:tlrl making 20 Einsteins." Crick
Gild  ,We don't think that's very
!.iixr  and I don't see why you'd
want to do that anyway.

"`I'hey can do rcloning) with a
very young frog. but not with an old
rrijg, SO that's not very promising."

<crick shared the Nobel Prize with
&nurican biochemist James Wat-
~II md British biophysicist Mau-
r KY! Wilkins atter they deduced the
structure of DNA and discovered
how genetic information is encoded
:~t rht* molecular level.

.\f'ter winning the Nobel Prize,
(`rick went on to herome a leader in
chtb :ieltl of molecular biology. He
n~t( trrorks at. the Salk Institute.

Franc18 Crick

Noted for DNA retwrch

DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) is
an essential building block for all
living matter. The L)NA molecular
structure determines what off-
spring - be it virus. plant or person
-- will be like.
Watson, Crick's former research

partner, wrote a book, "The Double
Helix," which proved to be a contro-
versial account of their work. Wat-
son later studied and wrote about
recombinant DNA, a "second revo,-
lution" in DNA research involving
gene combinations, Crick said.

"I didn't approve of the book at
first," Crick said. "I didn't want all
that publicity. But it is really pretty
accurate.

"Jim and I were amat.eurs in a

sense   We were lucky that iiit'
structure turned out to meal1 S(J
much We knew it was important.,
but we didn't know just how import-
ant.

"I1 also helped that there were
two of us. When one has a bright
idea and the other says it's no good,
you avoid intellectual cul-de-sacs

"As it turned out. it couldn't, be
simpler. but we couldn't, see a so!~
tion until we had it under wn
noses," Crick said, in a classrc
example of Brit.ish understatement
that got chuckles from his audience.
"The genetic code is almost univer-
sal. "

Information involving the highly
complex DNA structure is routinely
used in the diagnosis and treatment.
of diseases.

"It allows you to take a spevinm
from a person and test it, rathc>r
than testing the person," said (`rir:L.
whose lecture was illustrated nit11
technical slides. (He was the secotitl
Nobel laureate to speak in Santa
Barbara in one day. South Africirn
Bishop Desmond Tutu, who won tl{ra
1984 Nobel Peace Prize, apptaarrhd
earlier Tuesday at IJCSB. 1

One area of medical resea1.c.b
that appears to be on the verge UI
rapid advancement is the diagnosis
of genetic disorders in unborn: c:hil
dren. "Much will come out when v;c
understand what can go wronff 111
development," said Crick, who rli{l
his award.winning work at c(:~~Vi-~ri~l-
ish Laboratory at Cambridge 1'n1
versity in England.

In the case of infectious diseasils
such as AlDS (acquired imrnlinll

tlel~c leucy sy~~r!r~otnc~ ). (.:rlck said
that thanks to DNA research, scien-
tists "al least know what they're up
against," and that a breakthrough
cm be expet-ted "in the long run."
j Other areas in which Crick ex-
&cts technical advancements in the
next decade include gene replace-
tint therapy -- replacing a bad

He said it will take :~~rlf~~i~ ttr
make progress m his owri :`ir'i~: ii!
neuro-biology. whrc*h r:sp!oi`!.s 1116~
workings of the brain, bc<`ausc has;<'
conclusions still need to be reach4
before DNA structul,al !e&nique:<
can be applied.