Don Marvin, former EMBL Heidelberg Group Leader, died on 28 August 2022 at the age of 88.
It is with great sadness that we share the news of the loss of our former colleague Don Marvin, who passed away on 28 August 2022. He served as a Group Leader in the Structural and Computational Biology Unit from 1976 to 1982.
Don was a pioneer in X-ray fibre diffraction of filamentous bacteriophages. He was a dedicated mentor, collaborator and friend to us and he will be missed. Beyond that, he was known for his generously wide world view and his great thoughtfulness and kindness.
Don studied Physics at Yale and became interested in Biophysics under the mentorship of Ernie Pollard, who encouraged him to join the group of Maurice Wilkins at King’s College London. He completed his PhD there working on the structure of DNA. While at Kings he met his wife Fizz, who supported his work and with whom he shared 61 years of his life. Afterwards he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institute, Tübingen, Germany, from 1960-65 with Alfred Gierer. His work involved an ambitious attempt to solve the structure of the ribosome, as well as his initial foray into structural work on the filamentous bacteriophage known as fd. He continued work on filamentous page at Yale, initially as an Assistant Professor and, in 1976, he became Group Leader at EMBL. Don’s group was initially housed on the site in temporary accommodation (known as the “Alte Barracke”) where Colin Nave worked in his group from 1977.
The best fibre diffraction data of the filamentous viruses came from the Pf1 strain, a bacteriophage that uniquely targets Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Alignment of the virus in a superconducting magnet, together with the preparation of heavy atom derivatives and the application of novel maximum entropy methods resulted in an electron density map revealing the alpha helices of the coat protein. The larger side chains of the coat protein were visible and an initial model of the virus was quickly constructed, giving a much-improved agreement between the observed and calculated diffraction patterns. After refinement, the structure was used as the basis for determining the structure of other related filamentous viruses, including those which played more significant roles in recombinant DNA processes and phage display.
After his time in Germany, Don moved to the University of Cambridge, where he was active in the Department of Biochemistry until 2001, collaborating with Liam Welsh and others in Richard Perham’s group. After retirement he continued his research for over a decade afterwards, seeking to consolidate the differences in coat protein models obtained from X-ray fibre diffraction and solid-state NMR. This led to a fruitful collaboration with Walter R.P. Scott and Suzana K. Straus from the University of British Columbia and a series of consensus structures of Ff and Pf1 bacteriophages.
Don was an incredible scientist, never compromising on his curiosity and integrity. His relentless drive to pursue fundamental scientific questions has shaped all of us and we are grateful to have had the pleasure to work and live alongside Don.
Fizz Marvin (former Research Technician in the Marvin Group, EMBL Heidelberg, 1976-1979)
Colin Nave (former Staff Scientist in the Marvin Group, EMBL Heidelberg, 1977-1982)
Liam Welsh
Walter R.P. Scott
Suzana K. Straus
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