Collagen triple helix
Triple hélice del colágeno
- Date
- 1954 · confidence high
- Place
- University of Madras, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
- Credited to
- G. N. Ramachandran and Gopinath Kartha
- People
- 👤 G. N. Ramachandran1922–2001👤 Gopinath Kartha1927–1984
- Field
- Life & health
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What was discovered
From X-ray fibre diffraction, they proposed that collagen is made up of three intertwined helical chains, with glycine at every third position. It is the most abundant protein in the human body.
Rich and Crick (1955) proposed the refined version with hydrogen bonds that is accepted today; the Madras model was the first to be published.
What it led to
- structural biology of connective tissues
- collagen-based biomaterials