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The scientific research Pauling conducted during the 1930s and early 1940s gave him a unique knowledge comprising of structural
chemistry, physical chemistry, immunology, and biology as well as an experimental understanding of hemoglobin and its derivatives
(oxyhemoglobin and carbonmonoxyhemoglobin). Pauling’s diverse scientific background allowed him to contribute significantly
to the understanding of why the red blood cells in people suffering from sickle cell anemia distort into a crescent-shape.
His theory of the sickling process of hemoglobin led him to define sickle cell anemia as a molecular disease. This innovative
concept of molecular disease inspired others to analyze the molecular composition of human hemoglobin.
When Pauling learned of sickle cell anemia in 1945, he drew on his knowledge gathered from his previous researches on hemoglobin
and immunology and immediately thought that he comprehended the sickling process. Pauling later reflected that the idea had
occurred to him in “2 seconds.”
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“The Molecular Basis of Sickle-cell Anemia and Other Diseases,” a speech delivered by Linus Pauling to the Scientific Assembly
of the National Medical Association, Los Angeles, California, August 13, 1963.
"manufacture of abnormal molecules…is determined by the genetic constitution of the patient; the disease is inherited. A disease
of this sort, caused by molecules of abnormal structure present in the patient in place of the molecules of normal structure
that are present in normal human beings, is called a molecular disease."
- Linus Pauling, "The Molecular Basis of Genetics," 1956
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