Archive of offprints

1958-1965. First editions.

ARCHIVE OF 6 OFFPRINTS BY FRENCH CO-DISCOVERER OF MESSENGER RNA--COPIES OF CALTECH GENETICIST STUDYING LIFE ON MARS.

1) Francois GROS, & Françoise GROS. "Role des Aminoacides dans la Synthese des Acides Nucléiques chez Escherichia Coli." Offprint from: Biochim. Biophys. Acta, vol. 22, 1956. 8vo. 200-201 pp. 2 figs. Single leaf. Ownership handstamp of Norman H. Horowitz; 2) Francois GROS, et al. "Studies on the Heterogeneity of Messenger RNA from E. Coli." Offprint from: J. Mol. Biol., 5, 1962. 8vo. 311-324 pp. Figs. Self wraps, initials of Norman H Horowitz; 3) Francois GROS, et al. "Regulation of Metabolic Breakdown and Synthesis of Messanger RNA in Bacteria." Offprint from: Cold Spring Harbor, vol. XXVIII, 1963. 8vo 299-313 pp. Figs. Self wraps; 4) Francois GROS, & Clyde WILLSON. "Protein Synthesis with an Escherichia Coli System In Vitro." Offprint from: Biochimica et Biophysica Acta, 80, 1964. 8vo. 478-496 pp. Self wraps; 5) Francois GROS, et al. "Preferential Transcription of the Lactose Operon During the Diauxic Growth of Escherichia Coli." Offprint from: Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, vol. -18, no. 5-6, 1965. 8vo. 664-674 pp. Figs; 6) Francois GROS, François JACOB, et al. "Mécanismes Régulateurs et Synthèse des A. R. N. Messagers." Offprint from: Mécanismes de Régulation des Activités Cellulaires chez les Microorganismes, no 124, 1965. 4to. 15-37 pp. Figs. Printed wrappers. The offprints are in very good condition.

FRANCOIS GROS (1925-2022) studied chemistry and physiology at the Sorbonne, part of what was then the University of Paris. He gained skills in cell biology while studying the effects on bacteria of the newly characterized penicillin for his PhD. When his supervisor died suddenly, Gros joined Jacques Monod in the study of enzyme induction in bacteria. After Francis Crick's publication of his "central dogma" in 1958, Monod and Francois Jacob had discussed with Crick and Sydney Brenner the idea that a 'molecule X', probably made of RNA, must exist. In 1960 Monod dispatched Gros to Harvard, while Brenner and Jacob went to Caltech to work with Matthew Meselson. The 2 teams discovered messenger RNA independently and published their papers in the same issue of Nature (S. Brenner et al. Nature 190, 576-581, 1961; F. Gros et al. Nature 190, 581-585, 1961). In 1962, Gros set up his own lab at the Sorbonne. The 6 offprints offered here span the years (1956-1963) surrounding the seminal discovery.

PROVENANCE: NORMAN HAROLD HOROWITZ (1915 – 2005) was a geneticist at Caltech who achieved national fame as the scientist who devised experiments to determine whether life might exist on Mars. His experiments were carried out by the Viking Lander of 1976, the first U.S. mission to successfully land an unmanned probe on the surface of Mars. Horowitz was a member of both the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 1965 he began work with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, serving for five years as chief of JPL's bioscience section and as a member of the science teams for the Mariner and Viking missions to Mars. From 1977 to 1980, he was chairman of the biology division at Caltech.