By Kwak Soo-keun

Published 2025.11.09. 12:16Updated 2025.11.09. 21:29

James Watson (left) and Francis Crick (1916-2004), who discovered the DNA structure, explain a DNA molecular model at the Cavendish Laboratory of Cambridge University in the UK in May 1953. Based on Chargaff's knowledge of DNA base ratios and the X-ray crystallography knowledge of Maurice Wilkins and Rosalind Franklin at King's College London, they conclude that DNA exists in a double helix structure. Crick, Watson, and Wilkins jointly win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1962. /A. BARRINGTON BROWN, © GONVILLE & CAIUS COLLEGE / SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

James Watson, who unveiled the DNA double-helix structure and opened new horizons in life sciences, died at the age of 97. The Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL), where Watson was affiliated, announced on the 7th (local time) that he passed away the previous day at a hospice facility in East Norport, Long Island.

Watson, then 25 years old, discovered the DNA double-helix structure in 1953 at the University of Cambridge’s Cavendish Laboratory in the UK alongside Francis Crick. This breakthrough revealed for the first time how genetic information is replicated and transmitted across generations, ushering in the era of modern molecular biology. For this achievement, the two shared the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Maurice Wilkins.

His discovery fundamentally transformed the paradigm of human disease research, leading to advancements in genetic disease studies, gene therapy, personalized medicine, and CRISPR gene-editing technology, CRISPR.

While serving as a professor at Harvard University, Watson became director of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in Long Island, New York, in 1968, transforming it into a global hub for molecular biology.

He also spearheaded the Human Genome Project (HGP) as its inaugural leader in 1990, leading an international effort to decode the entire human genome (approximately 3 billion base pairs). Though he stepped down in 1992 over gene patent disputes, his argument that “genetic blueprints cannot be patented” was later validated in 2013 when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that “naturally occurring genes are not patentable.”

Watson’s life was marked by as much controversy as acclaim. In a 2007 interview with the British Sunday Times, he claimed, “Black people are less intelligent than white people,” drawing fierce criticism. He repeated similar remarks in a 2019 PBS documentary, leading to the revocation of all honorary titles by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. In 2014, he sparked debate by auctioning his Nobel Prize medal, stating, “It will be used to support my family and research.” Some in the scientific community criticized it as “a rebellious gesture by a Nobel laureate isolated from the field.” A Russian billionaire acquired the medal for $4.1 million and later returned it to Watson.

On April 23, 1993, in Paris, American geneticist James Dewey Watson explains his research in front of a blackboard. He is a co-recipient of the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of the DNA molecular structure, alongside Britons Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins. James Watson, the Nobel laureate who co-achieved the significant discovery of the DNA double helix structure, dies on November 7, 2025, his former laboratory announces. He leaves a blemish on his career due to repeated racist remarks. Aged 97. /DANIEL MORDZINSKI/AFP Yonhap

· This article has been translated by Upstage Solar AI.