Abstract
Fred Sanger, the inventor of the first protein, RNA and DNA sequencing methods, has traditionally been seen as a technical scientist, engaged in laboratory bench work and not interested at all in intellectual debates in biology. In his autobiography and commentaries by fellow researchers, he is portrayed as having a trajectory exclusively dependent on technological progress. The scarce historical scholarship on Sanger partially challenges these accounts by highlighting the importance of professional contacts, institutional and disciplinary moves in his career, spanning from 1940 to 1983. This paper will complement such literature by focusing, for the first time, on the transition of Sanger’s sequencing strategies from degrading to copying the target molecule, which occurred in the late 1960s as he was shifting from protein and RNA to DNA sequencing, shortly after his move from the Department of Biochemistry to the Laboratory of Molecular Biology, both based in Cambridge (UK). Through a reinterpretation of Sanger’s papers and retrospective accounts and a pioneering investigation of his laboratory notebooks, I will claim that sequencing shifted from the working procedures of organic chemistry to those of the emergent molecular biology. I will also argue that sequencing deserves a history in its own right as a practice and not as a technique subordinated to the development of molecular biology or genomics. My proposed history of sequencing leads to a reappraisal of current STS debates on bioinformatics, biotechnology and biomedicine.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abir-Am, P. 1982. ‹The Discourse of Physical Power and Biological Knowledge in the 1930s: A Reappraisal of the Rockefeller Foundation ‹Policy’ in Molecular Biology.’ Social Studies of Science 12: 341–382.
Abir-Am, P. 1992. ‹The Politics of Macromolecules: Molecular Biologists, Biochemists and Rhetoric.’ Osiris, Second Series 7: 164–191.
Abir-Am, P. 1999. ‹The First American and French Commemorations in Molecular Biology: From Collective Memory to Comparative History.’ Osiris, Second Series 14: 324–370.
Abir-Am, P. and Elliot, C.A. (eds). 1999. Osiris, Second Series 14 (special issue on “Commemorative Practices in Science: Historical Perspectives on the Politics of Collective Memory.”).
Armon, R. 2006. “Joseph Needham, the Mechanist-Vitalist Debate, and the Origins of Biochemistry, 1922-42.” Scientists and Social Commitment Meeting. London: Science Museum.
Atkinson, P, Greenslade, H, Glasner, P (eds.). 2007. New Genetics, New Identities. London:Routledge.
Bergmann, M. and Niemann, C. 1938. “On the Structure of Silk Fibroin.” Jounal of Biological Chemistry. 122(2): 577–596.
Billeter, MA, Weissmann, C. 1969. ‹Sequence of the First 175 Nucleotides from the 5′ Terminus of Qβ RNA Synthesised in vitro.’ Nature 224: 1083–1086.
Bostanci, A. 2004. ‹Sequencing Human Genomes.’ JP Gaudillière, HJ Rheinberger (eds.), From Molecular Genetics to Genomics: The Mapping Cultures of Twentieth Century Biology. London:Routledge.
Bostanci, A. 2005. “Response to García-Sancho,” Seminar at the ESRC Centre for Genomics in Society (Egenis), University of Exeter, UK.
Brandt, C. 2005. ‹Genetic Code, Text, and Scripture: Metaphors and Narration in German Molecular Biology.’ Science in Context 18(4): 629–648.
Brenner, S. 2001. My Life in Science. London:BioMed. (especially chs. 7–8).
Brenner, S, Jacob, F, Meselson, M. 1961. ‹Unstable Intermediate Carrying Information from Genes to Ribosomes for Protein Synthesis.’ Nature 190: 576–581.
Bretscher, M.S. and Travers, A.A. 2003. “Obituary: John Smith.” The Independent, issue November 27th: 22(broadsheet format) or 67 (compact format).
Sanger, F, Brownlee, GG, Barrell, BG. 1968. ‹The Sequence of 5s Ribosomal Ribonucleic Acid.’ Journal of Molecular Biology 34(3): 379–412.
Chargaff, E. 1978. Heraclitean Fire: Sketches from a Life Before Nature. New York:Rockefeller University Press.
Chiang, H. 2007. “Separating Molecules, Building Biology: The Evolution of Electrophoretic Instrumentation and the Material Epistemology of Molecular Biology, 1945-1965.” Biennial Meeting of the International Society for the History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Biology. University of Exeter.
Chibnall, C. 1942. ‹Amino-Acid Analysis and the Structure of Proteins.’ Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B 131: 136–160.
Clarke, H. 1944. ‹Obituary: Max Bergmann, 1886-1944).’ Science 102: 168–170.
Consden, R, Gordon, A, Martin, A. 1944. ‹Qualitative Analysis of Proteins: A Partition Chromatographic Method Using Paper.’ Biochemical Journal 38: 224–232.
Consden, R, Gordon, A, Martin, A, Synge, R. 1947. ‹Gramicidin S: The Sequence of the Amino-Acid Residues.’ Biochemical Journal 41: 596–602.
Cook-Deegan, R. 1994. The Gene Wars: Science, Politics and the Human Genome. London:W.W. Norton and Company.
Coulson, A. 2005. Interview with Miguel García-Sancho. Cambridge:Laboratory of Molecular Biology.
Creager, A. 1998. ‹Producing Molecular Therapeutics from Human Blood: Edwin Cohn’s Wartime Enterprise.’ S de Chadarevian, H Kamminga (eds.), Molecularizing Biology and Medicine: New Practices and Alliances, 1910s-1970s. London:Harwood.
Creager, A. and Santesmases, M.J. (eds.). 2006. “Radiobiology in the Atomic Age: Changing Research Practices and Policies in Comparative Perspective.” Journal of the History of Biology 39(special issue): 637–647.
Crick, F. 1958. ‹On Protein Synthesis.’ Symposium of the Society for Experimental Biology 12: 138–163.
Crick, F. 1988. What Mad Pursuit: A Personal View of Scientific Discovery. New York:Basic Books, pp. 102–107.
de Chadarevian, S. 1996. ‹Sequences, Conformation, Information: Biochemists and Molecular Biologists in the 1950s.’ Journal of the History of Biology 29: 361–386.
de Chadarevian, S. 1998. ‹Following Molecules: Hemoglobin Between the Clinic and the Laboratory.’ S de Chadarevian, H Kamminga (eds.), Molecularizing Biology and Medicine: New Practices and Alliances, 1910s–1970s. London:Harwood.
de Chadarevian, S. 1999. ‹Protein Sequencing and the Making of Molecular Genetics.’ Trends in Biochemical Sciences 24: 203–206.
de Chadarevian, S. 2002. Designs for Life: Molecular Biology after World War II. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press.
de Chadarevian, S, Gaudillière, JP. 1996. ‹The Tools of the Discipline: Biochemists and Molecular Biologists.’ Journal of the History of Biology 29: 327–330.
de Chadarevian, S, Kamminga, H (eds.). 1998. Molecularizing Biology and Medicine: New Practices and Alliances, 1910s-1970s. London:Harwood.
Dingman, CW, Peacock, AC. 1968. ‹Analytical Studies on Nuclear Ribonucleic Acid Using Polyacrylamide Gel Electrophoresis.’ Biochemistry 7(2): 659–668.
Edgerton, D. 1999. “From Innovation to Use: Ten Eclectic Theses on the Historiography of Technology.” History and Technology, 16: 111–136. French version available at Annales HSS 4–5, 1998.
Edgerton, D. 2006. The Shock of the Old. Technology and Global History since 1900. Oxford:Oxford University Press.
Edman, P. 1950. ‹Method for Determination of the Amino Acid Sequence in Peptides.’ Acta Chemica Scandinavica 4: 283–293.
Edsall, J.T. 1979. “The Development of the Physical Chemistry of Proteins, 1898–1940.” Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 325: 53–76. Special issue on The Origins of Modern Biochemistry: A Retrospect on Proteins.
Ferry, G. 1998. Dorothy Hodgkin: A Life. London:Granta. (especially chs. 7-8).
Fiers, W, et al. 1976. ‹Complete Nucleotide-Sequence of Bacteriophage MS2-RNA: Primary and Secondary Structure of Replicase Gene.’ Nature 260: 500–507.
Fischer, E. 1902. “Über die Hydrolyse der Proteïnstoffe.” Chemiker Zeitung 26:939–940.
Fischer, E. 1907. “Synthetical Chemistry in its Relation to Biology.” Journal of the Chemical Society Transactions 91: 1749–1765.
Florkin, M. 1972–1977. “A History of Biochemistry.” Florkin, M. and Stotz, E. (eds.), Comprehensive Biochemistry. Elsevier, New York (especially Vol. 30 and 32).
Fox Keller, E. 1995. Refiguring Life: Changing Metaphors in 20 th Century Biology. New York:Columbia University Press.
Fox Keller, E. 2000. The Century of the Gene. Cambridge:Harvard University Press.
Fruton, J. 1972. Molecules and Life: Historical Essays on the Interplay of Chemistry and Biology. New York:Wiley-Interscience.
Fruton, J. 1979. “Early Theories of Protein Structure”. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 325: 1–20. Special issue on The Origins of Modern Biochemistry: A Retrospect on Proteins.
Fruton, J. 1985. ‹Contrasts in Scientific Style. Emil Fischer and Franz Hofmeister: Their Research Groups and Their Theory of Protein Structure.’ Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 129(4): 313–370.
Fruton, J. 1992. A Skeptical Biochemist. Cambridge:Harvard University Press.
Fruton, J. 1999. Proteins, Enzymes, Genes: The Interplay of Chemistry and Biology. New Haven:Yale University Press.
García-Sancho, M. 2007a. “The Rise and Fall of the Idea of Genetic Information (1948-2006).” Genomics, Society and Policy 2(3). http://www.hss.ed.ac.uk/genomics/vol2no3/Garcia-sanchoabstract.htm.
García-Sancho, M. 2007b. “Mapping and Sequencing Information: The Social Context for the␣Genomics Revolution.” Endeavour 31(1): 18–23. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.endeavour.2007.01.006.
García-Sancho, M. 2008. Sequencing as a Way of Work: A History of its Emergence and Mechanisation – From Proteins to DNA, 1945-2000. PhD Thesis, Centre for the History of Science, Imperial College, London.
Garesse, R. 1987. ‹Secuenciación de DNA y síntesis de oligonucleótidos [“DNA Sequencing and Oligonucleotide Synthesis”].’ M Vicente, J Renart (eds.), Ingeniería Genética [Genetic Engineering]. Madrid:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas.
Garesse, R. 1994. ‹Presente y futuro de las técnicas de secuenciación de DNA [“Present and Future of the DNA Sequencing Techniques”].’ M Vicente (ed.), Avances en Ingeniería Genética [Advances in Genetic Engineering]. Madrid:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas.
Garesse, R. 2005. Interview with Miguel García-Sancho. Madrid: “Alberto Sols” Institute for Biomedical Investigations (in Spanish).
Gaudillière, J.P. 1992. “J. Monod, S. Spiegelman et l’adaptation enzymatique: programmes de recherche, cultures locales et traditions disciplinaires.” History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 14: 29–98.
Gaudillière, JP. 2002. Inventer la biomédicine: la France, l’Amérique et la production des savoirs du vivant (1945-1965). Paris:La Découverte.
Gay, H. 2007. The History of Imperial College London 1907-2007: Higher Education and Research in Science, Technology and Medicine. London:Imperial College Press.
Gilbert, W. 1980. “DNA Sequencing and Gene Structure,” Nobel Lecture. www.nobel.se/chemistry/laureates/1980/gilbert-lecture.html.
Gilbert, W. 1992. “A Vision of the Grail.” Kevles, D. and Hood, L. (eds.) The Code of Codes; Scientific and Social Issues in the Human Genome Project. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Gordon, A.H. 1979. “Electrophoresis and Chromatography of Amino Acids and Proteins.” Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 325: 95–106. Special issue on The Origins of Modern Biochemistry: A Retrospect on Proteins
Gordon, AH, Martin, AJP, Synge, RLM. 1943. ‹The Amino Acid Composition of Gramicidin.’ Biochemical Journal 37(1): 86–92.
Goven, J. 2008. “Shaping the ELSA Agenda: New Technologies and Old Politics,” International Conference of the UK Genomics Network and the Dutch Centre for Society and Genomics, Amsterdam.
Hartley, B. 1970. “The Primary Structure of Proteins.” T.W. Goodwin (ed.), British Biochemistry: Past and Present, Biochemical Society Symposia, no. 30. London: Academic Press, 29–41.
Hartley, B. 2004. ‹The First Floor, Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge.’ IUBMB Life 56(7): 437–439.
Hirs, C, Moore, S, Stein, W. 1960. ‹The Sequence of the Amino Acid Residues in Performic Acid-Oxidized Ribonuclease.’ Journal of Biological Chemistry 235(3): 633–647.
Hofmeister, F. 1902. ‹Über Bau und Gruppierung der Eiweisskörper.’ Ergebnisse der Physiologie 1: 759–802.
Holmes, FL. 2001. Meselson, Stahl and the Replication of DNA: A History of ‹The Most Beautiful Experiment in Biology’. New Heaven:Yale University Press.
Holmes, FL. 2006. Reconceiving the Gene: Seymour Benzer’s Adventures in Phage Genetics. New Heaven:Yale University Press.
Ingram, V. 1956. ‹A Specific Chemical Difference Between the Globins of Normal Human and Sickle-Cell Anaemia Haemoglobins.’ Nature 178: 792–794.
Jackson, C. 2007. “Making Substances Speak: The Public and Private Voices of Justus Liebig’s Organic Chemistry,” Annual Meeting of the British Society for the History of Science, University of Manchester.
Jeppesen, P, Barrell, B, Sanger, F, Coulson, A. 1972. ‹Nucleotide Sequences of Two Fragments from the Coat-Protein Cistron of Bacteriophage R17 Ribonucleic Acid.’ Biochemical Journal 128(5): 993–1006.
Judson, HF. 1979. The Eight Day of Creation: Makers of the Revolution in Biology. London:Cape.
Judson, HF. 1992. ‹A History of the Science and Technology Behind Gene Mapping and Sequencing.’ DJ Kevles, L Hood (eds.), The Code of Codes: Scientific and Social Issues in the Human Genome Project. Cambridge:Harvard University Press.
Kay, L. 1988. ‹Laboratory Technology and Biological Knowledge: The Tiselius Electrophoresis Apparatus, 1930–1945.’ History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 10(1): 51–72.
Kay, L. 1993. The Molecular Vision of Life: Caltech, the Rockefeller Foundation and the Rise of the New Biology. New York:Oxford University Press.
Kay, L. 2000. Who Wrote the Book of Life: A History of the Genetic Code. Stanford:Stanford University Press.
Kevles, DJ, Hood, L (eds.). 1992. The Code of Codes: Scientific and Social Issues in the Human Genome Project. Cambridge:Harvard University Press.
Kohler, R. 1982. From Medical Chemistry to Biochemistry. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press.
Kornberg, A. 1987. ‹The Two Cultures: Chemistry and Biology.’ Biochemistry 26: 6888–6891.
Lagnado, J. 2005. “Questions and Answers with Fred Sanger.” The Biochemist 27(6): 37–39
Lean, T. 2008. “In Just a Day You’ll be Talking to it Like an Old Friend: the Development of the 1980s Home Microcomputer in Britain,” Lunchtime Seminar Series, Centre for the History of Science, University of Manchester.
Martin, A. 1952. “The Development of Partition Chromatography,” Nobel Lecture. www.nobel.se/chemistry/laureates/1952/martin-lecture.html.
Martin, A, Synge, R. 1941. ‹A New Form of Chromatogram Employing Two Liquid Phases.’ Biochemical Journal 35: 1358–1368.
Matthaei, H, Nirenberg, M. 1961. ‹Characterisation and Stabilisation of DNAase-Sensitive Protein Synthesis in E. coli extracts.’ Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 47: 1580–1588.
Maxam, A, Gilbert, W. 1977. ‹A New Method for Sequencing DNA.’ Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 74: 560–564.
Moore, S. and Stein, W. 1972. “The Chemical Structure of Pancreatic Ribonuclease and Deoxiribonuclease,” Nobel Lecture. www.nobel.se/chemistry/laureates/1972/moore-lecture.html.
Morange, M. 1998. A History of Molecular Biology. Cambridge:Harvard University Press.
Morris, P. 1998. ‹Chromatograph.’ R Bud (ed.), Instruments of Science: An Historical Encyclopaedia. London:Science Museum.
Mullis, K. 1998. Dancing Naked in the Mind Field. New York:Vintage Books.
Murray, K. 1970. ‹Nucleotide Maps of Digests of Deoxyribonucleic Acids.’ Biochemical Journal 118: 831–841.
Neuberger, A. 1939. ‹Chemical Criticism of the Cyclol and Frequency Hypothesis of Protein Structure.’ Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B 127: 25–26.
Nirenberg, M, Matthaei, H. 1961. ‹The dependence of cell-free protein synthesis in E. coli upon naturally occurring or synthetic polyribonucleotides.’ Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 47: 1588–1602.
Olby, R. 1990. “The Molecular Revolution in Biology.” R. Olby, G. Cantor, J. Christie, and J. Hodge (eds), Companion to the History of Modern Science. London: Routledge.
Olby, R. 1992[1974]. The Path to the Double Helix: The Discovery of DNA. New York:Courier Dover Publications.
Onaga, L. 2005. “Ray Wu and DNA Sequencing,” paper presented at the ISHPSSB 2005 Meeting, University of Guelph.
Paul, D. 1984. ‹Eugenics and the Left.’ Journal of the History of Ideas 45(4): 567–590.
Peacock, AC, Dingman, CW. 1968. ‹Molecular Weight Estimation and Separation of Ribonucleic Acids by Electrophoresis in Agarose-Acrylamide Composite Gels.’ Biochemistry 7(2): 668–674.
Pederson, K. 1983. ‹The Svedberg and Arne Tiselius. The Early Development of Protein Chemistry at Uppsala.’ G Semenza (ed.), Selected Topics in the History of Biochemistry: Personal Recollections (Comprehensive Biochemistry), 35 vols. New York:Elsevier.
Pickstone, J. 2001. Ways of Knowing: A New History of Science, Technology and Medicine. Chicago:Chicago University Press.
Pickstone, J. 2007. ‹Working Knowledges Before and After Circa 1800: Practices and Disciplines in the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine.’ Isis 98: 489–516.
Pierrel, J. 2008. “Des RNAses à l’RNA: Walter Fiers,” Chapter of Ongoing Ph.D Dissertation. Bench-Side Story. RNA Sequencing as a Laboratory Practice in the 1960s and 1970s in Cambridge, Ghent and Strasburg. Centre for Interdisciplinary Research on Science and Technology, University Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg.
Pirie, W. 1939. ‹Amino-Acid Analysis and Protein Structure.’ Annual Report of the Chemical Society 36: 351–353.
Rheinberger, HJ. 1993. ‹Experiment and Orientation: Early Systems of in vitro Protein Synthesis.’ Journal of the History of Biology 26: 443–471.
Rheinberger, HJ. 1997. Toward a History of Epistemic Things: Synthesizing Proteins in the Test Tube. Stanford:Stanford University Press.
Rheinberger, HJ, Gaudillière, JP. 2004a. Classical Genetic Research and its Legacy: The Mapping Cultures of 20 th Century Biology. London:Routledge.
Rheinberger, HJ, Gaudillière, JP. 2004b. From Molecular Genetics to Genomics: The Mapping Cultures of Twentieth Century Biology. London:Routledge.
Robertson, HD, Barrell, B, Weith, H, Donelson, J. 1973. ‹Isolation and Sequence Analysis of a Ribosome-Protected Fragment from Bacteriophage ØX 174 DNA.’ Nature New Biology 241: 38–40.
Rose, N. 2006. The Politics of Life Itself: Biomedicine, Power and Subjectivity in the Twenty-First Century. Princeton:Princeton University Press.
Sanger, F. 1945. ‹The Free Amino Groups of Insulin.’ Biochemical Journal 39: 507–515.
Sanger, F. 1946. ‹The Free Amino Group of Gramicidin S.’ Biochemical Journal 40(2): 261–262.
Sanger, F. 1949a. ‹The Terminal Peptides of Insulin.’ Biochemical Journal 45: 563–574.
Sanger, F. 1949b. ‹Some Chemical Investigations on the Structure of Insulin.’ Cold Spring Harbor Symposia on Quantitative Biology: Amino Acids and Proteins 14: 153–160.
Sanger, F. 1959. ‹Chemistry of Insulin.’ Science 129: 1340–1344.
Sanger, F. 1963. “Amino Acid Sequences in the Active Centres of Certain Enzymes.” Proceedings of the Chemical Society 5: 76–83.
Sanger, F. 1975. “The Croonian Lecture.” Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B 191:317–333.
Sanger, F. 1980. “Determination of Nucleotide Sequences in DNA.” Nobel Lecture. www.nobel.se/chemistry/laureates/1980/sanger-lecture.html.
Sanger, F. 1987. Interview with Horace F. Judson. London: Biochemical Society. Video available through the Biochemical Society.
Sanger, F. 1988. ‹Sequences, Sequences and Sequences.’ Annual Review of Biochemistry 57: 1–29.
Sanger, F. 1992. Interview with G.G. Brownlee. London: Imperial College. Video available through the Biochemical Society.
Sanger, F. 2005. Interview with Miguel García-Sancho. Hinxton (Cambridge):Sanger Institute.
Sanger, F, Brown, H, Kitai, R. 1955. ‹The Structure of Pig and Sheep Insulins.’ Biochemical Journal 60: 556–564.
Sanger, F, Brownlee, GG, Barrell, B. 1965. ‹A Two-Dimensional Fractionation Procedure for Radioactive Nucleotides.’ Journal of Molecular Biology 13(2): 373–398.
Sanger, F, Coulson, A. 1975. ‹A Rapid Method for Determining Sequences in DNA by Primed Synthesis with DNA Polymerase.’ Journal of Molecular Biology 94: 441–448.
Sanger, F. and Coulson, A., et al. 1982. “Nucleotide Sequence of Bacteriophage λ DNA.” Journal of Molecular Biology 162(4).
Sanger, F, Donelson, JE, Coulson, A, et al. 1973. ‹Use of DNA Polymerase I Primed by a Synthetic Oligonucleotide to Determine a Nucleotide Sequence in Phage f1 DNA.’ Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 70(4): 1209–1213.
Sanger, F. and Dowding, M. (eds). 1996. Selected Papers of Frederick Sanger (with Commentaries). London: World Scientific, pp. 7–8, 339–344.
Sanger, F, Hartley, B, Naughton, M. 1959. ‹The Amino Acid Sequence Around the Reactive Serine of Elastase.’ Biochemical and Biophysical Acta 34: 243–244.
Sanger, F, Milstein, C. 1961. ‹An Amino Acid Sequence in the Active Centre of Phosphoglucomutase.’ Biochemical Journal 79: 456–469.
Sanger, F, Nicklen, S, Coulson, A. 1977. ‹DNA Sequencing with Chain Terminating Inhibitors.’ Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 74: 5463–5467.
Sanger, F, Thompson, EO. 1953a. ‹The Amino-Acid Sequence in the Glycyl Chain of Insulin: 2. The Identification of Lower Peptides from Partial Hydrolysates.’ Biochemical Journal 53(3): 353–366.
Sanger, F, Thompson, EO. 1953b. ‹The Amino-Acid Sequence in the Glycyl Chain of Insulin: II. The Investigation of Peptides from Enzymic Hydrolysates.’ Biochemical Journal 53(3): 366–374.
Sanger, F, Tuppy, H. 1951a. ‹The Amino-Acid Sequence in the Phenylalanyl Chain of Insulin: I. The Identification of Lower Peptides from Partial Hydrolysates.’ Biochemical Journal 49(4): 463–481.
Sanger, F, Tuppy, H. 1951b. ‹The Amino-Acid Sequence in the Phenylalanyl Chain of Insulin: II. The Investigation of Peptides from Enzymic Hydrolysates.’ Biochemical Journal 49(4): 481–490.
Santesmases, MJ. 2002. ‹Enzymology at the Core: Primers and Templates in Severo Ochoa’s Transition from Biochemistry to Molecular Biology.’ History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 24: 193–218.
Sarkar, S. 1996. “Biological Information: A Sceptical Look at Some Central Dogmas in Molecular Biology.” S. Sarkar (ed.), The Philosophy and History of Molecular Biology: New Perspectives. Dordrecht, The Netherlands, pp. 187–233. Reprinted in S. Sarkar (2005) Molecular Models of Life: Philosophical Papers on Molecular Biology. MIT Press, Cambridge.
Sarkar, S. 1998. Genetics and Reductionism. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press.
Sloan, PR (ed.). 2000. Controlling our Destinies: Historical, Philosophical, Ethical and Theological Perspectives on the Human Genome Project. Indiana:University of Notre Dame.
Smith, E.L. 1979. “Amino Acid Sequences of Proteins: The Beginnings.” Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 325: 107–120. Special issue on The Origins of Modern Biochemistry: A Retrospect on Proteins
Spackman, D, Stein, W, Moore, S. 1958. ‹Automatic Recording Apparatus for Use in the Chromatography of Amino Acids.’ Analytical Chemistry 30(7): 1190–1207.
Stent, GS. 1968. ‹That was the Molecular Biology that was.’ Science 160: 390–395.
Strasser, B. 2006. ‹A World in One Dimension: Linus Pauling, Francis Crick and the Central Dogma of Molecular Biology.’ History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 28: 491–512.
Stretton, A. 2002. ‹The First Sequence: Fred Sanger and Insulin.’ Genetics 162: 527–532.
Sutcliffe, JG. 1995. ‹pBR322 and the Advent of Rapid DNA Sequencing.’ Trends in Biochemical Sciences 20(2): 87–90.
Synge, R. and Williams, E. 1990. “Albert Charles Chibnall.” Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 35: 57–96.
Tauber, A.I. and Sarker, S. 1992. ‹The Human Genome Project: Has Blind Reductionism Gone too Far?’ Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 35(2): 220–235.
Thurtle, P. 1998. ‹Electrophoretic Apparatus.’ R Bud (ed.), Instruments of Science: An Historical Encyclopaedia. London:Science Museum.
Tutton, R. 2008. “Banking Expectations: The Promises and Problems of Biobanks,” International Conference of the UK Genomics Network and the Dutch Centre for Society and Genomics, Amsterdam.
Watson, J. 1969. The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA. New York:New American Library.
Watson, J. 2003. DNA: The Secret of Life. London:Heinemann.
Watson, J, Crick, F. 1953a. ‹Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids. A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid.’ Nature 171: 737–738.
Watson, J, Crick, F. 1953b. ‹Genetical Implications of the Structure of Deoxyribonucleic Acid.’ Nature 171: 964–967.
Weatherall, M, Kamminga, H. 1992. Dynamic Science: Biochemistry in Cambridge, 1898-1949. Cambridge:Cambridge Wellcome Unit Publications.
Wills, C. 1991. Exons, Introns and Talking Genes: The Science behind the Human Genome Project New York: Basic Books.
Wu, R. 1994. ‹Development of the Primer-Extension Approach: A Key Role in DNA Sequencing.’ Trends in Biochemical Sciences 19: 429–433.
Wu, R, Kaiser, A. 1968. ‹Structure and Base Sequence in the Cohesive Ends of Bacteriophage Lambda DNA.’ Journal of Molecular Biology 35: 523–537.
Wu, R, Taylor, E. 1971. ‹Nucleotide Sequence Analysis of DNA. II. Complete Nucleotide Sequence of the Cohesive Ends of Bacteriophage λ DNA.’ Journal of Molecular Biology 57: 491–511.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
A substantial part of the investigations reported in this paper were conducted during the development of my PhD at the Centre for the History of Science, Imperial College, London, and a short postdoctoral stay at the Centre for the History of Science, University of Manchester (UK).
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
García-Sancho, M. A New Insight into Sanger’s Development of Sequencing: From Proteins to DNA, 1943–1977. J Hist Biol 43, 265–323 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10739-009-9184-1
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10739-009-9184-1