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

FRS FInstP
Born
David Mervyn Blow

(1931-06-27)27 June 1931
Birmingham, England
Died8 June 2004(2004-06-08) (aged 72)
Appledore, Torridge, England
NationalityBritish
EducationKingswood School[1]
Alma materUniversity of Cambridge (BA, PhD)[1]
Known forHaemoglobin
X-ray crystallography
Spouse(s)
Mavis Sears (m. 1955)
[1]
AwardsWolf Prize in Chemistry (1987)
Scientific career
FieldsBiophysicist
InstitutionsMassachusetts Institute of Technology
National Institutes of Health
Imperial College London
ThesisX-ray analysis of haemoglobin : determination of phase angles by isomorphous substitution (1958)
Doctoral advisorMax Perutz[2]
Other academic advisorsAlexander Rich[2]
Doctoral students
Other notable studentsThomas 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
  1. Anon (2017). "Blow, Prof. David Mervyn". Who's Who (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)
  2. "David Blow Academic Genealogy". AcademicTree.org.
  3. 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.
  4. Al-Khalili, Jim (2018). "Richard Henderson zooms in on the molecules of life". BBC.
  5. 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. doi:10.1098/rsbm.2008.0022.
  6. Pearce, Jeremy (19 July 2007). "David Blow, 72; Briton Developed Method to Study Proteins". The New York Times.
  7. Rossmann, Michael (25 June 2004). "David Blow Pioneering scientist in protein crystallography". The Guardian.
  8. Vrielink, Alice (2005). "David Mervyn Blow". Physics Today. 58 (3): 88–89. Bibcode:2005PhT....58c..88V. doi:10.1063/1.1897573.
  9. 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.
  10. 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.
  11. 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.


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