Rosalind Franklin’s Legacy

Every year on July 25th, Start Genetic gathers the community together to observe Genetic Testing Action Day. Start Genetic selected this day to honor Rosalind Franklin’s birthday, whose groundbreaking work helped unlock the structure of DNA and made modern genetic testing possible.

Who Was Rosalind Franklin?

Born in London in 1920, Rosalind Franklin was a chemist and X-ray crystallographer. Her meticulous scientific work led to one of the most important discoveries in the history of medicine: the structure of DNA. At King’s College London in the early 1950s, Franklin used X-ray diffraction techniques to capture what would become one of the most significant images in scientific history: Photo 51.

Photo 51 was an X-ray photograph of the DNA molecule that revealed its double helix structure with striking clarity. One of Franklin’s colleagues at King’s College, Maurice Wilkins, shared this photo with James Watson and Francis Crick. Watson and Crick then used Photo 51 as key evidence to publish an article in the scientific journal Nature about the discovery of DNA’s double helix structure. Their article made no meaningful acknowledgment of Rosalind Franklin or her contribution.

A Discovery Without Recognition

Rosalind Franklin passed away from ovarian cancer in 1958, at just 37 years old, without recognition for her contribution during her lifetime. In 1962, Watson, Crick, and Franklin’s colleague Maurice Wilkins received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of DNA’s structure. Because the Nobel Prize is not awarded posthumously, Franklin — who had passed away four years earlier — was never recognized.

Her exclusion from that recognition remains one of the most significant examples of gender inequality in the history of scientific discovery.

Honoring Her Legacy

Though she never received recognition during her lifetime, Rosalind Franklin's contributions to science extended far beyond DNA. Her later work led to important advances in virology, including research on the tobacco mosaic virus and the polio virus.

She has also become an enduring figure for women in STEM, inspiring generations of young women to enter the scientific community.

Every July 25, we honor Rosalind Franklin’s legacy by working to ensure every family gets the answers they’ve been searching for. Join us on Genetic Testing Action Day — in Rosalind’s honor.