One of the most momentous discoveries of the 20th century will be remembered this week, 60 years after scientists revealed the structure of DNA.

Today scientists know that the true picture of genetics is a lot more complex than Watson and Crick ever suspected

On Thursday, a memorial to British biologist Francis Crick will be unveiled by American James Watson at the university where they worked six decades ago.

Together they described the double-helix structure of DNA in a seminal paper published in the journal Nature on April 25, 1953.

Their work set the stage for a molecular revolution, opening up vast new avenues of understanding about the genetic code, or Book of Life.

Watson, now retired, went on to direct the US arm of the Human Genome Project (HGP) from 1988 to 1992. In 2000, the HGP published a first draft of the complete human genetic code, marking another historic turning point.

Friends, former colleagues and admirers of Crick, who died in 2004, will gather at his former Cambridge University college, Gonville and Caius, to view the unveiling.

The event will be followed by a series of talks and tributes by leading experts and colleagues, including Watson.

Watson and Crick’s work on the structure of DNA earned them the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1962, which they shared with colleague Maurice Wilkins from King’sCollege London.

The two men showed how DNA stored information using a four-letter molecular alpha-bet consisting of the letters A, T, C and G arranged in a double-helix.

Three billion copies of theseletters make up the entire human genome. Some are sorted into sequences called genes that provide the software instructions for making proteins and allow parental traits to be inherited.

Before the structure of DNA was unscrambled, no one had a clear idea how genetic replication – one of the cornerstones of life – worked.

The discovery acted as a springboard that scientists have been jumping off ever since.

Genetic research has transformed our understanding of the causes of cancer and other diseases and led to a multiplicity of new targeted treatments.

More controversially, it has also opened up the fields of cloning and genetic modification research. Dolly the sheep, the first mammal to be cloned from a single cell, was created by scientists at the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh in 1996. Today scientists know that the true picture of genetics is a lot more complex than Watson and Crick ever suspected.

Non-coding areas of DNA, previously dismissed as “junk”, are now known to play a crucial role as “dimmer switches” controlling the activity of genes.

Molecules called transcription factors also play a part in regulating their activity.

So-called “epigenetic” environmental influences can also imprint permanent changes into genes.

Ted Bianco, acting director of the Wellcome Trust, which provided much of the funding for the Human Genome Project, said: “Genetics has truly flourished in the 60 years since, from diagnosis to drug development, forensics to food production, and to the publication of the entire human genome.

“We now know, for example, that some diseases are simple, down to single genetic mutations but that others like cancer and diabetes involve a complex interplay between our DNA and the environment in which we live.

“The discovery of the double helix is one of many great British breakthroughs in science. And we continue to be world leaders in the fields of genetics and genomics as these disciplines have grown and matured.

“But it also highlights that science takes time and requires long-term investment – 60 years on, genetics is still presenting us with new puzzles, new challenges and new opportunities. It is still an immensely exciting field.”

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