CODISCOVERER OF DNA'S FORM QUITS US POST
Author: Associated Press
Date: Saturday, April 11, 1992
Page: 3
Section: NATIONAL/FOREIGN
WASHINGTON -- James D. Watson, who shared the Nobel Prize for
describing the structure of the molecule that forms human genes, resigned
yesterday as director of the National Center for Human Genome Research.
The resignation follows a review of Watson's investments and a statement
from the Health and Human Services Department that there were questions about
his holdings.
Dr. Bernadine Healy, director of the National Institutes of Health,
triggered a review of Watson's investments. This week, an NIH spokeswoman,
Johanna Schneider, said Healy asked an HHS ethics officer to review Watson's
financial disclosure form, a report required of high government officials.
Healy, the spokeswoman said, was concerned about investments Watson made in
biotechnology companies.
Watson shared the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1962 with Francis Crick for
discovering the double helix shape of the deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA,
molecule that forms the human genetic code.
Watson was named the first director of the gene research agency in 1989,
which was created to coordinate federal efforts to map and sequence all human
genes.
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