NEW YORK, November 8. /TASS/. Nobel-Prize winning American scientist James Watson, who helped discover the structure of DNA, has passed away aged 97, the Associated Press news agency reported.

According to his son, the scientist "died in hospice care after a brief illness."

Watson shared a 1962 Nobel Prize with Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins for discovering that deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA, is a double helix, consisting of two strands that coil around each other. This discovery ensured the development of molecular biology and genetics, as well as of modern medicine and biotechnologies.