Klug, Aaron (1926– )

South African molecular biologist who improved the quality of electron micrographs by using laser lighting. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1982 for his use of electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and structural modelling to study the structures of different viruses (including the polio virus) that are too small to be visible with a light microscope or to be trapped by filters.

Research Klug postulated that the protein coat of a small virus could be formed by an arrangement of quasi-equivalent (similar) protein molecules, and shed light on the formation of protein units in helical viruses. Later on in his career he applied his illuminating techniques to cell components, including chromatin and muscle filaments.

Life Klug was born to South African parents in Zelvas in the Baltic state of Lithuania. The family moved to South Africa when he was three years old. After studying medicine for one year at Witwatersrand University, Johannesburg, he opted to learn about science instead. In 1947, he moved to Cape Town and specialized in crystallography.

At the end of World War II, he travelled to England, working at the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge, and then in London at Birkbeck College as a Nuffield research fellow 1954–57. Here he collaborated with Rosalind Franklin, who worked with him during his research on viruses. In 1958, he succeeded Franklin as director of the Virus Structure Research Group, then in 1962, he returned to Cambridge to join the staff at the Medical Research Council's Laboratory of Molecular Biology. He was appointed director of the laboratory in 1986.