Sven Furberg (1920–1983) was a Norwegian crystallographer and chemist whose research provided foundational insights into the three-dimensional structure of DNA. He is primarily recognized for his work at Birkbeck College in London during the late 1940s, where he conducted X-ray crystallographic studies of nucleosides.
In 1949, Furberg proposed a structural model for the nucleotide, correctly determining that the sugar (deoxyribose) and the nitrogenous base are oriented at roughly right angles to each other. This configuration, known as the "standard" or "Furberg" model, was a significant departure from previous theories that suggested the components were roughly parallel.
Furberg further proposed that DNA likely existed in a helical form with the sugar-phosphate backbone on the outside and the bases pointing inward. While his single-stranded helical model was not the final double-helix structure discovered by James Watson and Francis Crick in 1953, his correct identification of the internal geometry of the nucleotide and the suggestion of a helical backbone were critical prerequisites for the eventual discovery of the double helix. Watson and Crick acknowledged that Furberg's structural data was essential to their successful modeling of the DNA molecule.
Furberg spent much of his later career as a professor at the University of Oslo, where he continued his research in X-ray crystallography and structural chemistry.
