The first paper published in a scientific journal on the application of an electronic computer to computational biology. At the second English computer conference held in Manchester from July 9-12, 1951 computer scientist John Makepiece Bennett and biochemist and crystallographer John Kendrew described their use of the Cambridge EDSAC for the computation of Fourier syntheses in the calculation of structure factors of the protein molecule myoglobin. Their paper in Acta Crystallographica was an expansion of a briefer summary published in the Manchester University Computer Conference Proceedings (1951). It represents a more thorough presentation intended for x-ray crystallographers, and must have been submitted almost immediately after the Manchester Conference, since it was received by Acta Crystallographica on July 28, 1951.

Initial paper on the first solution of the three-dimensional molecular structure of a protein. Computing the molecular structure in 3 dimensions was possible through the use of the Cambridge EDSAC stored-program electronic computer. Co-authored by G. Bodo, R. G. Parrish, H. Wyckoff, and D. C. Phillips. For further information see the entry at HistoryofInformation.com at this link.

In 1962 Kendrew shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Max Perutz "for their studies of the structures of globular proteins."

See also No. 6912.

Kendrew's second paper reporting the first solution of the three-dimensional molecular structure of a protein, for which he shared the 1962 Nobel Prize in chemistry with Max Perutz, who solved the structure of the related and more complex protein, hemoglobin, two years after Kendrew’s achievement. With R. E. Dickerson, B. E. Strandberg, R. G. Hart, D. R. Davies, D. C. Phillips, and V. C. Shore.