-
Gregor Mendel
Discovered the basic principles of heredity through experiments in his garden -
Frederick Miescher
First researcher to isolate and identify nucleic acid -
Alfred Sturtevant
Constructed the first genetic map of a chromosome -
Frederick Griffith
His experiment showed us that bacteria can distinctly change their function and form. Before his discovery, scientists believed that bacteria was unchangeable. -
Harriet Creighton & Barbara McClintock
Proved that genes are located on chromosomes -
Thomas Morgan Hunt
Discovered the role of chromosomes play in heredity by performing an experiment on flies -
Oswald Avery (and MacLeod & McCarthy)
Discovered cell transformation, proving that DNA carries a cell's genetic information and can be altered. -
Erwin Chargaff
Discovered two rules that helped lead to the discovery of the double helix structure of DNA. -
Rosalind Franklin
X-ray crystallographer who contributed to understanding the molecular structure of DNA and RNA. -
Al Hershey & Martha Chase
Discovered that genetic material is found in DNA, not in proteins as many scientists prior to their discovery believed. -
James Watson & Frances Crick
Discovery of the chemical structure of DNA. -
Joe Hin Tijo
Was the first person to recognize the normal number of human chromosomes -
Meselson & Stahl
Tested the hypothesis of DNA replication -
Herb Boyer
Discovered a method to coax bacteria into producing foreign proteins, which jump started the field of genetic engineering -
Alec Jeffreys
Discovered the technique of genetic fingerprinting -
Ian Wilmut
Successfully cloned the sheep Dolly -
J. Craig Venter
One of the first to sequence the human genome and the first to transfect a cell with a synthetic genome. He worked all through the 1990s, and his results were published in 2001.
