Oct. 25 (Bloomberg) -- James Watson, winner of the Nobel Prize as co-discoverer of DNA's molecular structure, retired as chancellor of New York's Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory amid a controversy over racial remarks.

The lab suspended Watson from his position earlier this month after he questioned the intelligence of Africans during a book tour. Watson announced his decision to retire and leave the lab's board in an e-mail.

``Closer now to 80 than 79, the passing on of my remaining vestiges of leadership is more than overdue,'' Watson said in the e-mail. ``The circumstances in which this transfer is occurring, however, are not those which I could ever have anticipated or desired.''

Watson was quoted Oct. 14 in the Times of London saying he was ``inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa'' because ``all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours -- whereas all the testing says not really.''

Watson apologized in a speech to a private audience at the Royal Society in London, said Kate Farquhar-Thomson, a spokeswoman for Oxford University Press. Watson said the controversy over his remarks has focused him on the moral values passed on to him by his mother and father.

Parent's Lives

``To my great advantage, their lives were guided by a faith in reason; an honest application of its messages; and for social justice, especially the need for those on top to help care for the less fortunate,'' he said in the e-mail. ``As an educator, I have always striven to see that the fruits of the American Dream are available to all.''

Watson became director of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on Long Island's north shore in 1968, the laboratory said in a statement. Under Watson's direction, scientists have studied the genetic basis of cancer, the statement said. The laboratory's focus now includes plant biology, neuroscience, and computational biology.

``For over 40 years, Dr. Watson has made immeasurable contributions to the Laboratory's research and educational programs,'' Eduardo Mestre, chairman of the laboratory's board, said in the statement. ``His legacy as 1962 Nobel Prize laureate for describing the structure of DNA will continue to influence biomedical research for decades to come. The board respects his decision to retire at this point in his career.''

Environment Created

The private, non-profit laboratory was established in 1890 and receives some funding from the U.S. National Cancer Institute. Watson created an environment there that was ``unparalleled in the world of science,'' said director Bruce Stillman.

Watson's legacy will include ``his pioneering efforts that led to the sequencing of the human genome and his innovations in science writing and education,'' Stillman said in the laboratory's statement.

A family member who answered Watson's telephone said that Watson wasn't available to comment.

Watson has become one of the many powerful to be brought down by racial statements. Mississippi Republican Senator Trent Lott stepped down as majority leader in 2002 after making comments in support of segregation. William Shockley, winner of the 1956 Nobel Prize for physics, was later spurned by colleagues for his suggestion that blacks were genetically inferior to whites.

Finding at Age 24

A zoologist by training, Watson was 24 years old when he joined Cambridge University researcher Francis Crick in proposing the ``double helix'' structure for deoxyribonucleic acid. DNA holds the genetic information that allows hereditary qualities to pass to the next generation of humans and other living organisms.

The 1953 discovery of the twisted-ladder shape with a sugary phosphate backbone and nitrogen ``rungs,'' or bases, later made it possible to manipulate genes, identify inherited diseases and use DNA profiling to solve certain crimes.

Watson and Crick shared the 1962 Nobel Prize for medicine with Maurice Wilkins, a physicist. Critical to solving the mystery of the molecule's structure were ``excellent X-ray photographs'' of DNA taken by Wilkins's colleague Rosalind Franklin.

Watson and Crick gained access to the photos without Franklin's permission, according to the Chemical Heritage Foundation. Franklin, the only one with degrees in chemistry, died at age 37 of cancer in 1958, making her ineligible for the Nobel, which is awarded only to living persons.

Foundation for Medicines

The resulting understanding of DNA formed the foundation for medicines created by the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry. This includes the cancer drug Gleevec made by Novartis AG and Amgen Inc.'s Epogen, used to treat anemia in patients on kidney dialysis.

Watson's 1969 account of the discovery was published under the title ``The Double Helix'' and caused a stir for revelations about the selfish motives of scientists. He wrote several other books, including ``Genes, Girls and Gamow'' (2002) and ``DNA: The Secret of Life'' (2004).

Watson joined the biology department at Harvard University in 1956 and became a professor in 1961. There he focused on the role of ribonucleic acid in protein synthesis. He resigned to become director at Cold Spring Harbor, and assumed the title of president there in 1994.

The laboratory's graduate school is named the Watson School of Biological Sciences.

As director of the Human Genome Project from 1988 to 1992, Watson spearheaded the effort to chart the genetic code of the human species so that tests and possible cures can be developed for inherited diseases. He resigned amid friction with National Institutes of Health Director Bernadine Healy over his objection to patenting partial genes. Watson's own personal genome sequence is available on the Internet.

To contact the reporters on this story: Michelle Fay Cortez in Minneapolis at mcortez@bloomberg.net; John Lauerman in Boston at jlauerman@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: October 25, 2007 11:11 EDT