In 1951, Dr. Herman Branson co-authored a paper alongside Linus Pauling and Robert Corey, detailing the structure of the alpha-helix, a key component of protein structure, marking a significant discovery in the field of protein biology. proposed the α-helix and the β-sheet, now known to form the backbones of tens of thousands of proteins.

In major respects, the Pauling–Corey–Branson models were astoundingly correct, including bond lengths that were not surpassed in accuracy for >40 years. Their work had a significance for proteins comparable to that 2 years later of the Watson–Crick paper for DNA, which adopted the Pauling–Corey model-building approach.

Linus Pauling, Robert Corey