Linus Pauling & Colleagues Begin the Molecular Approach to Disease

In "Sickle Cell Anemia, a Molecular Disease," Science 110 (1949) 543-48 Linus Pauling, Harvey A. Itano, Seymour J. Singer and Ibert C. Wells established sickle-cell anemia as a genetic disease in which affected individuals have a different form of the metalloprotein hemoglobin in their blood. The paper introduced the concept of a "molecular disease," and represents the beginning of molecular medicine.

"The paper helped establish that genes control not just the presence or absence of enzymes (as genetics had shown in the early 1940s) but also the specific structure of protein molecules. It was also an important triumph in the efforts of Pauling and others to apply the instruments and methods of the physical sciences to biology, and Pauling used it promote such research and attract funding" (Wikipedia article on Sickle Cell Anemia, a Molecular Disease, accessed 01-17-2014).

J. Norman (ed) Morton's Medical Bibliography 5th ed (1991) no. 3154.1.