John Kendrew
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{{for|the Industrial Revolution-era designer|John Kendrew (inventor)}}
{{Infobox Scientist
|name = John Cowdery Kendrew
|image =
|image_width =
|caption = John Kendrew
|birth_date = [[24 March]] [[1917]]
|birth_place = [[Oxford]], [[England]]
|death_date = {{death date and age|1997|8|23|1917|3|24|df=y}}
|death_place = [[Cambridge]], [[England]]
|nationality = [[United Kingdom]]
|field = [[Crystallography]]
|work_institution = [[Royal Air Force]]
|alma_mater = [[University of Cambridge]]
|doctoral_advisor = [[Max Perutz]]
|doctoral_students =
|known_for = [[Heme]]-containing [[protein]]s
|prizes = [[Nobel Prize for Chemistry]] (1962)
}}
'''Sir John Cowdery Kendrew''' ([[24 March]] [[1917]] – [[23 August]] [[1997]]) was an [[England|English]] [[biochemist]] and [[crystallography|crystallographer]] who shared the 1962 [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry]] with [[Max Perutz]]; their group in the [[Cavendish Laboratory]] investigated the structure of [[heme]]-containing [[protein]]s.
==Biography==
He was born in [[Oxford]], son of [[Wilford George Kendrew]], [[reader (academic rank)|reader]] in [[climatology]] in the [[University of Oxford]] and [[Evelyn May Graham Sandburg]], art historian. He was educated at the [[Dragon School]] in Oxford, as well as [[Clifton College]] in [[Bristol]], 1930-1936. He attended [[Trinity College, Cambridge|Trinity College]], [[University of Cambridge|Cambridge]] in 1936, as a Major Scholar, graduating in chemistry in 1939. He spent the early months of [[World War II]] doing research on reaction kinetics, and then became a member of the Air Ministry Research Establishment, working on [[radar]]. In 1940 he became engaged in operational research at the [[Royal Air Force]] headquarters, holding the honorary rank of Wing Commander R.A.F.
During the war years, he became increasingly interested in biochemical problems, and decided to work on the structure of proteins.
===Crystallography===
In 1945 he approached Dr. [[Max Perutz]] in the [[Cavendish Laboratory]] in [[Cambridge]]. [[Joseph Barcroft]], a respiratory physiologist, suggested he might make a comparative protein crystallographic study of adult and fetal sheep [[hemoglobin]], and he started that work.
In 1947 he became a Fellow of Peterhouse, and [[MRC]] [the Medical Research Council] agreed to create a research unit for the study of the molecular structure of biological systems, under the direction of Sir [[Lawrence Bragg]]. In 1954 he became a Reader at the [[Davy-Faraday Laboratory]] of the [[Royal Institution]] in [[London]].
===Crystal structure of [[myoglobin]]===
[[Image:KendrewMyoglobin.jpg|thumb|300px|John Kendrew with model of myoglobin in progress. Copyright by the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England.]]
Kendrew shared the 1962 [[Nobel Prize]] for [[chemistry]] with [[Max Perutz]] for determining the first atomic structures of [[protein]]s using [[X-ray crystallography]]. Their work was done at what is now the [[MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology]] in [[Cambridge]]. Kendrew determined the structure of the protein [[myoglobin]], which stores oxygen in [[muscle]] [[cell (biology)|cells]].
In 1947 the [[MRC]] agreed to make a research unit for the Study of the Molecular Structure of Biological Systems. The original studies were on the structure of sheep [[hemoglobin]], but when this work had progressed as far as was possible using the resources then available, Kendrew embarked on the study of [[myoglobin]], a molecule only a quarter the size of the hemoglobin molecule. His initial source of raw material was [[horse]] heart, but the crystals thus obtained were too small for X-ray analysis. Kendrew realized that the oxygen-conserving tissue of [[diving mammals]] could offer a better prospect, and a chance encounter led to his acquiring a large chunk of [[whale]] meat from Peru. Whale myoglobin did give large crystals with clean X-ray diffraction patterns. However, the problem still remained insurmountable, until in 1953 [[Max Perutz]] discovered that the [[phase problem]] in analysis of the diffraction patterns could be solved by [[multiple isomorphous replacement]] — comparison of patterns from several crystals; one from the native protein, and others that had been soaked in solutions of heavy metals and had metal ions introduced in different well-defined positions. An electron density map at 6 [[angstrom]] (0.6 [[nanometre]]) resolution was obtained by 1957, and by 1959 an atomic model could be built at 2 angstrom (0.2 nm) resolution.
===Later career===
In 1963 Kendrew became one of the founders of the [[European Molecular Biology Organization]]; as well, he founded and was for many years editor-in-chief of the [[Journal of Molecular Biology]]. He became Fellow of the [[American Society of Biological Chemists]] in 1967 and honorary member of the [[International Academy of Science]]. In 1974 he succeeded in persuading governments to establish the [[European Molecular Biology Laboratory]] in [[Heidelberg]] and became its first director. From 1974 to 1979 he was a Trustee of the [[British Museum]], and from 1974 to 1988 he was successively Secretary General, Vice-President, and President of the [[International Council of Scientific Unions]].
After his retirement from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Kendrew became President of St. John's College, Oxford, a post he held from 1981-1987. From 1974-79 he was a Trustee of the British Museum and from 1974 to 1988 he was successively Secretary General, Vice-President and President of the International Council of Scientific Unions. Kendrew's entry in Who's Who lists ten other important National and International committees on which he served as either member or chairman.
==References==
<div class="references-small">
*{{Citation | id = PMID:14031911 | url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14031911 | last=KENDREW | first=J C | publication-date=1962 Oct | year=1962 | title=The structure of globular proteins. | volume=4 | issue= | periodical=Comp. Biochem. Physiol. | pages=249-52}}
*{{Citation | id = PMID:14455128 | url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14455128 | last=KENDREW | first=J C | publication-date=1961 Dec | year=1961 | title=The three-dimensional structure of a protein molecule. | volume=205 | issue= | periodical=Sci. Am. | pages=96-110}}
*{{Citation | id = PMID:13783432 | url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/13783432 | last=WATSON | first=H C | last2=KENDREW | first2=J C | publication-date=1961 May 20 | year=1961 | title=The amino-acid sequence of sperm whale myoglobin. Comparison between the amino-acid sequences of sperm whale myoglobin and of human hemoglobin. | volume=190 | issue= | periodical=Nature | pages=670-2}}
*{{Citation | id = PMID:13752474 | url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/13752474 | last=KENDREW | first=J C | last2=WATSON | first2=H C | last3=STRANDBERG | first3=B E | last4=DICKERSON | first4=R E | publication-date=1961 May 20 | year=1961 | title=The amino-acid sequence x-ray methods, and its correlation with chemical data. | volume=190 | issue= | periodical=Nature | pages=666-70}}
*{{Citation | id = PMID:13672267 | url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/13672267 | last=KENDREW | first=J C | publication-date=1959 Jul | year=1959 | title=Structure and function in myoglobin and other proteins. | volume=18 | issue=2, Part 1 | periodical=Fed. Proc. | pages=740-51}}
*{{Citation | id = PMID:13517261 | url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/13517261 | last=KENDREW | first=J C | last2=BODO | first2=G | last3=DINTZIS | first3=H M | last4=PARRISH | first4=R G | publication-date=1958 Mar 8 | year=1958 | title=A three-dimensional model of the myoglobin molecule obtained by x-ray analysis. | volume=181 | issue=4610 | periodical=Nature | pages=662-6}}
*{{Citation | id = PMID:13369569 | url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/13369569 | last=INGRAM | first=D J | last2=KENDREW | first2=J C | publication-date=1956 Oct 27 | year=1956 | title=Orientation of the haem group in myoglobin and its relation to the polypeptide chain direction. | volume=178 | issue=4539 | periodical=Nature | pages=905-6}}
*{{Citation | id = PMID:13235845 | url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/13235845 | last=KENDREW | first=J C | last2=PARRIS | first2=R G | publication-date=1955 Jan 29 | year=1955 | title=Imidazole complexes of myoglobin and the position of the haem group. | volume=175 | issue=4448 | periodical=Nature | pages=206-7}}
*{{Citation | id = PMID:13214049 | url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/13214049 | last=KENDREW | first=J C | last2=PARRISH | first2=R G | last3=MARRACK | first3=J R | last4=ORLANS | first4=E S | publication-date=1954 Nov 20 | year=1954 | title=The species specificity of myoglobin. | volume=174 | issue=4438 | periodical=Nature | pages=946-9}}
*{{Citation | id = PMID:18144277 | url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18144277 | last=KENDREW | first=J C | publication-date=1949 Apr | year=1949 | title=Foetal haemoglobin. | volume=8 | issue=30 | pages=80-5}}
* Thread of Life by Sir John Kendrew: (ISBN 0-7135-0618-0) G.Bell, 1966;
</div>
==External links==
* Max Perutz [http://img.cryst.bbk.ac.uk/BCA/obits/jck.html obituary] of John Kendrew
* [http://nobelprize.org/chemistry/laureates/1962/kendrew-bio.html Nobel website biography]
{{Nobel Prize in Chemistry Laureates 1951-1975}}
{{Persondata<!-- Metadata: see [[Wikipedia:Persondata]] -->
|NAME= Kendrew, John Cowdery
|ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
|SHORT DESCRIPTION= [[England|English]] [[biochemist]] and [[crystallography|crystallographer]] who shared the 1962 [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry]] with [[Max Perutz]]
|DATE OF BIRTH= [[24 March]] [[1917]]
|PLACE OF BIRTH= [[Oxford]], [[England]]
|DATE OF DEATH= 1997-8-23
|PLACE OF DEATH= [[Cambridge]], [[England]]
}}
{{Lifetime|1917 |1997 |Kendrew, John Cowdery}}
[[Category:People from Oxfordshire]]
[[Category:People from Oxford]]
[[Category:Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:English biologists]]
[[Category:Molecular biologists]]
[[Category:Nobel laureates in Chemistry]]
[[Category:Old Dragons]]
[[Category:Old Cliftonians]]
[[Category:Biophysicists]]
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