Crick spent a postdoctoral year at the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn in 1953-54, during which he undertook crystallographic examinations of ribonuclease in order to determine the structure of the enzyme, which catalyzes (speeds up) the cleavage of linkages holding together ribonucleic acid (RNA) chains. Ribonuclease can be used in the laboratory to sever RNA in specific places, thereby gaining segments of desired length and base composition. Crick's collaborator in this research was Beatrice S. Magdoff.
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