9 March 1956

Dear Anita and Linus:

I am writing to tell you about my situation with respect to research, and about the disposal of the $50,000 fund.

At the present time there remains unallocated the sum of $7735.10. A large part of the allocated sum has not yet been expended-only $2062.50 has been expended so far in salaries (for Dr. Murayama, who is assisting me on work on hemoglobin). The remaining salary items are for men whom I have appointed for the coming year, including Dr. Murayama. The other three have not yet taken up residence here.

The expenditures and commitments are as follows:

Chemical benches, hoods, for my laboratory...................................$11,902.40

Electrophoresis apparatus and refrigerators for protein research...............5,800.00

Salary of Dr. F. Helfferich, 1956-57...........................................5,400.00

Salary of Dr. J. Lewin, 1956-57................................................7,500.00

Salary of Prof. H. Jehle, 1956-57..............................................5,000.00

Salary of Dr. M. Murayama, 1 January 1956-16 June 1957.........................6,562.50

Balance........................................................................7,735.10

I am especially in two research programs at the present time, both of them in their beginning stages. I think that it will be possible within a few years to make a complete structure determination of a crystalline globular protein, such as hemoglobin, insulin, ribonuclease, etc. This problem is an extremely difficult one. The hemoglobin molecule, with molecular weight 68,000, contains about 7,500 atoms other than hydrogen, and the job of making a complete structure determination involves determining three cartesian coordinates for each of these atoms. X-ray techniques have not in the past been powerful enough to permit such a job to be done. I believe that we have discovered a way of doing the job, provided that it is worked at intensively, for a long time-several years. The first step in making use of our new method is to grow crystals of a protein and two inorganic complexes, one a cation, such as Ta₆Co₁₂ ⁺⁺ and the other an anion, such as W₁₂PO₄₀ ^---. There is only one man in the world who has had much experience in attacking the problem of growing crystals of this sort. He is Dr. Jacques Lewin, who is assistant director of the Centra National de Transfusion Sanguine, in Paris. I have written to him, offering him appointment for one year, as Senior Fellow in Research. I hope that he will be interested to come to Pasadena, and that he can obtain leave from his post in Paris for this purpose. We should be able to learn something about his special techniques during his visit here, and he himself might, in the course of one year, be able to grow just the crystals that we need to begin our attack on this problem.

Professor Herbert Jehle is Professor of Theoretical Physics at the University of Nebraska. He has been working for some years on the quantum mechanical theory of specific forces operating between proteins and other biological molecules. I have been interested in this field too, and have invited him to come here for one year, in order that we might collaborate. The University of Nebraska is giving him part of his salary, $2500, for the year, permitting him to accept our offer. I am hoping also to get him to work on some theoretical aspects of our method of determining the structure of globular proteins.

Dr. Murayama is working on the structure of proteins in relation to mental disease. He is at present studying hemoglobin obtained from the blood of patients with phenyl pyruvic oligophrenia. I expect that Dr. Helfferich, when he arrives in Pasadena, will also collaborate in the work on mental deficiency.

I may say that it may be possible to transfer some of these men to other funds. I have applied, as you know, to the Ford Foundation for a grant for support of our work on mental deficiency. The Ford Foundation has not yet reported its decision on my application. The Langley Porter Clinic, in San Francisco made four applications, referring to four different projects that they proposed, and they have been notified already that all four of their applications have been turned down. I think that it may be that the Ford Foundation is planning to concentrate its support on private institutions. At any rate, I am hoping that they will act favorably on my application.

Also, we have applied to the Navy for a contract to permit an intensive attack on the problem of the determination of the structure of crystalline globular proteins. This is really a great problem-it has the possibility of leading to great advance in our understanding of the human body, and to significant contributions to biology and medicine. It is a problem that can be solved only by an intensive attack over a long period of years. Now that I have had my 55th birthday, I am thinking about how long I have remaining to me, for effective scientific work, and I suppose that I should be thinking about 10 years as a period of time in which I must do what I want to do. I think that the problem of the structure of globular proteins can be solved within 10 years; perhaps one complete structure determination can be made within 5 years, if we are able to attack the problem vigorously enough. It would not be enough, of course, to determine the structure of a single protein-if the structure of hemoglobin could be determined, one would still want to know the structure of ribonuclease, pepsin, trypsin, or some other enzyme (perhaps of several enzymes), and of insulin or of some other hormone (perhaps of several)-I suppose that the physiologists, biochemists, and medical men would not be satisfied until complete structure determinations had been made of a rather large number of protein molecules. The mental deficiency project is different in nature. There is almost infinite possibility for making progress in the attack on this problem.

Mama and I are getting along well. We are making plans for entertaining Professor Hugo Theorell, and his wife, week after next. Professor Theorell was the recipient of the 1955 Nobel Prize for Medicine. He is an old friend of ours-he came to work in our laboratory in 1939 or 1940. You may remember him from that time-a rather stocky man badly crippled by polio, so that he walks with difficulty with the aid of two canes.

Mama and I are making an eastern trip. We shall stop in Portland for one day, in Vancouver, and then go to Winnipeg, where I am to give a lecture in the Medical School. Then we go to the University of Illinois, Yale, Amherst, and home. I am giving an address at the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association in Chicago.

Also, we are planning to make a short trip to Europe during June. I have been invited to deliver the Avogadro Commemoration Address in Rome.

Much love from

Linus Pauling:W