Nobel Prize winner for research funding

The pioneer in genetic research James Watson decided to sell the Nobel Prize for his co-discovery of the double helix structure of DNA, the basis of life.

Mr. Watson's Nobel medal is expected to cost up to $ 3.5 million auction in New York (USA) on December 4 next.

This will be the first time a prestigious Nobel Prize has been sold by the living master.

Watson, 85, received the Nobel Prize in 1962 with scientists Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins.

His acceptance speech at the Nobel ceremony in Stockholm, and the draft of his Nobel presentation, will also be auctioned.

Mr. James Watson - (Photo: NPR)

Mr. Watson and Crick studied the structure of DNA at the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge University in the early 1950s.

"He was the first person I met that I could really talk about - Mr. Watson spoke about Crick on CNN in 2013 - The people I met didn't believe that only DNA was important."

In 1953, the pair came to the conclusion that DNA was formed by the spiral strands of molecules, shaped like ladders, holding double helix structures together.

This discovery, which explains how DNA stores information and how it is reprinted, has changed biology forever and created a revolution in medicine.

"Everything we do later is more or less based on that structure," recalls Mario Capecchi, professor of human genetics and biology at the University of Utah and a former student of Mr. Watson, recalling .

Watson said he intends to use part of the proceeds from the sale of awards to fund projects at universities and scientific research agencies, where he has worked throughout his career. me

He added that the prize auction helped him to continue to contribute to keeping the academic world an environment for great ideas.

Last year, Francis Crick's "Secret of Life" letter to his son, which explains the structure of DNA a few weeks before the official discovery was published in the April 1953 edition of Nature magazine, sold for more than 6 million USD.