James D. Watson, the Nobel Prize-winning molecular biologist and geneticist and former director of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, best known for his discovery of the double helix structure of the DNA molecule, has died at the age of 97, according to a statement from the lab.

He had been in hospice care in East Northport. Before his illness, Watson and his wife, Elizabeth, lived on the grounds of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. He is survived by her and their sons Duncan and Rufus.

Watson’s 1953 paper with British molecular biologist Francis Crick helped explain the structure of DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, the molecule that carries genetic information, allowing organisms to develop and function. The discovery, based on data from Rosalind Franklin, Maurice Wilkins and their colleagues at

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