Pauling, Itano, Singer and Wells: sickle-cell anemia as a molecular disease

What changed

Used electrophoresis to distinguish normal, disease and trait hemoglobin, supporting a molecular-disease account.

Scientific scope

The record is the exact four-author November 1949 Science paper. It does not claim that the causal amino-acid substitution was identified in this work, absorb inheritance studies or establish modern diagnosis and treatment. PubMed exposes only two names and marks its list incomplete; Caltech and Crossref preserve all four.

Evidence

The linked sources identify this contribution and its scope. WRS has not independently reconstructed the scientific claims. The record is the exact four-author November 1949 Science paper. It does not claim that the causal amino-acid substitution was identified in this work, absorb inheritance studies or establish modern diagnosis and treatment. PubMed exposes only two names and marks its list incomplete; Caltech and Crossref preserve all four.

Contributors

• Linus Pauling · SCIENCE: Named source author of the scoped work; individual effort shares are not measured.
• Harvey A. Itano · SCIENCE: Named source author of the scoped work; individual effort shares are not measured.
• S. J. Singer · SCIENCE: Named source author of the scoped work; individual effort shares are not measured.
• Ibert C. Wells · SCIENCE: Named source author of the scoped work; individual effort shares are not measured.

• CaltechAUTHORS record for sickle-cell molecular-disease paper
• Crossref metadata for sickle-cell paper

Provisional WRS assessment, edition 2026-10-16.1. Independent expert calibration is pending. This grade does not certify correctness or assign ownership.

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