David Mervyn Blow

British biophysicist

Mavis Sears

(m. 1955)

^[5]AwardsWolf Prize in Chemistry (1987)Scientific careerFieldsBiophysicistInstitutionsMassachusetts Institute of Technology
National Institutes of Health
Imperial College London
MRC Laboratory of Molecular BiologyThesisX-ray analysis of haemoglobin : determination of phase angles by isomorphous substitution (1958)Doctoral advisorMax Perutz^[1]Other academic advisorsAlexander Rich^[1]Doctoral students

Richard Henderson^[2]^[3]
Paul Sigler^[1]
Alice Vrielink^[4]
Gérard Bricogne

Other notable studentsThomas A. Steitz
Brian Matthews^[1]

David Mervyn Blow FRS FInstP^[6] (27 June 1931 – 8 June 2004)^[5]^[7]^[8] 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.^[9]

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 at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB).^[10]^[11]

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^[5]

In 1954, he met Max Perutz;^[12] they began to study a new technique wherein X-rays would be passed through a protein sample at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology. This eventually led to the creation of a three-dimensional structure of haemoglobin.^[13] Blow was appointed professor of biophysics at Imperial College London in 1977. His doctoral students include Richard Henderson,^[2]^[3] Paul Sigler,^[1] and Alice Vrielink.^[14]

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.^[5]

Personal life

Blow married Mavis Sears in 1955, and they had two children, a son Julian and a daughter Elizabeth.^[5]^[8] He died of lung cancer at the age of 72, in Appledore, Torridge (near Bideford), Devon.^[7]^[8]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e "David Blow Academic Genealogy". AcademicTree.org.
^ ^a ^b 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.
^ ^a ^b Al-Khalili, Jim (2018). "Richard Henderson zooms in on the molecules of life". BBC.
^ Vrielink, Alice (3 July 2014). "David Blow (1931-2004) - A Remberance" (PDF). American Crystallographic Association. Archived (PDF) from the original on 3 July 2014. Retrieved 14 October 2021.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Anon (2017). "Blow, Prof. David Mervyn". Who's Who & Who Was Who (online Oxford University Press ed.). Oxford: A & C Black. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U7898. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
^ Henderson, R.; Franks, N. P. (2009). "David Mervyn Blow. 27 June 1931 -- 8 June 2004". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 55: 13–35. doi:10.1098/rsbm.2008.0022. S2CID 56616438.
^ ^a ^b Pearce, Jeremy (19 July 2007). "David Blow, 72; Briton Developed Method to Study Proteins". The New York Times.
^ ^a ^b ^c Rossmann, Michael (25 June 2004). "David Blow Pioneering scientist in protein crystallography". The Guardian.
^ Vrielink, Alice (2005). "David Mervyn Blow". Physics Today. 58 (3): 88–89. Bibcode:2005PhT....58c..88V. doi:10.1063/1.1897573.
^ 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.
^ Henderson, R.; Franks, N. P. (2009). "David Mervyn Blow. 27 June 1931 — 8 June 2004". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 55: 13–35. doi:10.1098/rsbm.2008.0022. ISSN 0080-4606. S2CID 56616438.
^ 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. S2CID 73986989.
^ 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.
^ Vrielink, Alice (3 July 2014). "David Blow (1931-2004) - A Remberance" (PDF). American Crystallographic Association. Archived (PDF) from the original on 3 July 2014. Retrieved 14 October 2021.