David Mervyn Blow
David Mervyn Blow FRS FInstP[5] (27 June 1931 – 8 June 2004)[1][6][7] was an influential British biophysicist. He was best known for the development of X-ray crystallography, a technique used to determine the molecular structures of tens of thousands of biological molecules. This has been extremely important to the pharmaceutical industry.[8]
David Blow | |
---|---|
Born | David Mervyn Blow 27 June 1931 Birmingham, England |
Died | 8 June 2004 72) Appledore, Torridge, England | (aged
Nationality | British |
Education | Kingswood School[1] |
Alma mater | University of Cambridge (BA, PhD)[1] |
Known for | Haemoglobin X-ray crystallography |
Spouse(s) | Mavis Sears (m. 1955) |
Awards | Wolf Prize in Chemistry (1987) |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Biophysicist |
Institutions | Massachusetts Institute of Technology National Institutes of Health Imperial College London |
Thesis | X-ray analysis of haemoglobin : determination of phase angles by isomorphous substitution (1958) |
Doctoral advisor | Max Perutz[2] |
Other academic advisors | Alexander Rich[2] |
Doctoral students | |
Other notable students | Thomas A. Steitz Brian Matthews[2] |
Early life and education
Blow was born in Birmingham, England. He was educated at Kingswood School in Bath, Somerset and the University of Cambridge where he won a scholarship to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. His PhD was awarded in 1958 for X-ray analysis of haemoglobin supervised by Max Perutz.[9]
Career and research
Following graduation from Cambridge, Blow spent two years at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded by the Fulbright Foundation[1]
In 1954, he met Max Perutz;[10] they began to study a new technique wherein X-rays would be passed through a protein sample. This eventually led to the creation of a three-dimensional structure of haemoglobin.[11] Blow was appointed professor of biophysics at Imperial College London in 1977. His doctoral students include Richard Henderson[3][4] and Paul Sigler.[2]
Awards and honours
Blow was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1972. He was awarded the Wolf Prize in Chemistry in 1987.[1]
Personal life
Blow married Mavis Sears in 1955, and they had two children, a son Julian and a daughter Elizabeth.[1][7] He died of lung cancer at the age of 72, in Appledore, Torridge.[6][7]
References
- Anon (2017). "Blow, Prof. David Mervyn". Who's Who. ukwhoswho.com (online Oxford University Press ed.). A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U7898. (subscription or UK public library membership required) (subscription required)
- "David Blow Academic Genealogy". AcademicTree.org.
- Henderson, Richard (1969). X-ray analysis of α-chymotrysin : substrate and inhibitor binding (PhD thesis). University of Cambridge. OCLC 500470310. EThOS uk.bl.ethos.458866.
- Al-Khalili, Jim (2018). "Richard Henderson zooms in on the molecules of life". BBC.
- Henderson, R.; Franks, N. P. (2009). "David Mervyn Blow. 27 June 1931 -- 8 June 2004". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 55: 13–35. doi:10.1098/rsbm.2008.0022. S2CID 56616438.
- Pearce, Jeremy (19 July 2007). "David Blow, 72; Briton Developed Method to Study Proteins". The New York Times.
- Rossmann, Michael (25 June 2004). "David Blow Pioneering scientist in protein crystallography". The Guardian.
- Vrielink, Alice (2005). "David Mervyn Blow". Physics Today. 58 (3): 88–89. Bibcode:2005PhT....58c..88V. doi:10.1063/1.1897573.
- Blow, David Mervyn (1958). X-ray analysis of haemoglobin : determination of phase angles by isomorphous substitution. copac.jisc.ac.uk (PhD thesis). University of Cambridge. OCLC 879392023. EThOS uk.bl.ethos.596730. Archived from the original on 16 February 2018. Retrieved 15 February 2018.
- Blow, David Mervyn (2004). "Max Ferdinand Perutz OM CH CBE. 19 May 1914 – 6 February 2002: Elected F.R.S. 1954". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 50: 227–256. doi:10.1098/rsbm.2004.0016. JSTOR 4140521. PMID 15768489. S2CID 73986989.
- Rossmann, M. G.; Blow, D. M. (1962). "The detection of sub-units within the crystallographic asymmetric unit". Acta Crystallographica. 15 (1): 24–31. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.319.3019. doi:10.1107/S0365110X62000067. ISSN 0365-110X.