NIH Dinner Celebrating The Helix and the Genome

The 50th anniversary of the discovery of theDNA double helix by James Watson and FrancisCrick, and the completion of the sequencing ofthe human genome were cause for celebrationon April 14. Top scientists, including DNAco-founder James Watson (Crick couldn'tattend due to health reasons), joined membersof Congress, representatives from the majorpharmaceutical companies, and a few prominentWashingtonians at a lavish dinner held at theLibrary of Congress. The dinner, given bythe Foundation for the National Institutes ofHealth and chaired by Deeda Blair, was part ofa month-long effort to highlight these groundbreaking achievements.