Klug was born inŽelva, in Lithuania, toJewish parents Lazar, a cattleman, and Bella (née Silin) Klug, with whom he emigrated to South Africa at the age of two. He was educated atDurban High School.Paul de Kruif's 1926 book, Microbe Hunters, aroused his interest in microbiology.[2]
Following his PhD, Klug moved toBirkbeck College in theUniversity of London in late 1953, and started working with chemist and X-ray crystallographerRosalind Franklin in the lab of crystallographerJohn Bernal. This experience aroused a lifelong interest in the study of viruses, and during his time there he made discoveries in the structure[6] of thetobacco mosaic virus. In 1962 he moved to the newly builtMedical Research Council (MRC)Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) in Cambridge. Over the following decade Klug used methods fromX-ray diffraction, microscopy and structural modelling to develop crystallographic electron microscopy in which a sequence of two-dimensional images of crystals taken from different angles are combined to produce three-dimensional images of the target. He studied the structure oftransfer RNA, and found what is known aszinc fingers as well as the neurofibrils in Alzheimer's disease.[7]
Also in 1962, Klug became a Fellow ofPeterhouse, Cambridge. He was later made an Honorary Fellow of the college.[4]
Mathematical physicist and crystallographer distinguished for his contributions to molecular biology, especially the structure of viruses. Development of a theory of simultaneous temperature and phase changes in steels led him to apply related mathematical methods to the problem of diffusion and chemical reactions of gases in thin layers of haemoglobin solutions and in red blood cells. Then the lateRosalind Franklin introduced him to the x-ray study of tobacco mosaic virus to which he contributed by his application and further development ofCochran andCrick's theory of diffraction from helical chain molecules. Klug's most important work is concerned with the structure of spherical viruses. Together withD. Caspar he developed a general theory of spherical shells built up of a regular array of asymmetric particles. Klug and his collaborators verified the theory by x-ray and electron microscope studies, thereby revealing new and hitherto unsuspected features of virus structure.[12]
In 2013, Israel'sBen-Gurion University of the Negev dedicated their centre for structural biology in Klug's name,Aaron Klug Integrated Centre for Biomolecular Structure. He, his family and the then-British Ambassador to IsraelMatthew Gould, were in attendance. Klug was associated with the university and the town ofBe'er Sheva, having visited them numerous times.[18][2]
Klug married Liebe Bobrow in 1948;[4] they had two sons, one of whom predeceased them in 2000.[2] He died on 20 November 2018 in Cambridge.[19]
Though Klug had faced discrimination in South Africa, he remained religious and according toSydney Brenner, he became more religious in his older age.[20]
^Shur, Chaim (1998).Shomrim in the land of Apartheid : the story of Hashomer Hatzair in South Africa 1935–1970. Givat Haviva: Members of Hashomer Hatzair South Africa and Havazelet in conjunction with Yad Yaari.ISBN965-7014-17-4.OCLC41871384.
^Klug, Aaron (1953).The kinetics of phase changes in solids (PhD thesis). University of Cambridge.ProQuest301283484.
^Amos, L.; Finch, J. T. (2004). "Aaron Klug and the revolution in biomolecular structure determination".Trends in Cell Biology.14 (3):148–152.doi:10.1016/j.tcb.2004.01.002.PMID15003624.
