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Friedrich Miescher
Freidrich Miescher is known best for extracting DNA and finding outstanding results. This would soon be known as one of the critical building blocks for the future. He discovered how to isolate DNA from a cell, which is astounding considering the equipment they had back then. He experimented with white blood cells. -
Frederick Griffith
Frederick Griffith is best known for finding out that bacteria can transfer genetic information through transformation to other bacteria. In his experiment with mice, at first he ingected mice with R bacteria (non-lethal) and the mouse lived. Next he ingected mice with the S bacteria (lethal) and the mouse died. He then kiled the S bacteria with heat and ingected it into the mouse and the mouse lived. When he mixed the R with the heat killed S, the mouse died which was interesting. -
Oswald Avery, Maclyn McCarty & Colin McCleod
Before their discovery, many scientists thought that proteins carry genetic material, but Oswald Avery, Maclyn McCarty & Colin McCleod discovered that DNA is what causes bacterial transformation. An interesting fact is that Avery’s work was usually neglected because scientists were doing more traditional breeding experiments. -
Erwin Chargaff
Chargaff showed that there is equal numbers of eguanine and cytocine units and also equal numbers of adenine and thymine in DNA. He used paper chromatography and UV spectrophotometry in his research. Because of this he had rules named after him called Chargaff’s rules. -
Barbara McClintock
In the late 1940s, Barbara McClintock challenged existing concepts of what genes were capable of when she discovered that some genes could be mobile. Her studies of chromosome breakage in maize led her to discover a chromosome-breaking locus that could change its position within a chromosome. -
Alfred Hershey & Martha Chase
Alfred Hershey & Martha Chase discovered that protein was not genetic material and that DNA was. When they proved it, they used bacterio phages with labeled proteins and DNA. They were able to prove that the DNA got in the cell and the protein did not. -
Rosalind Franklin & Maurice Wilkins
Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins took an x-ray diffraction photo of DNA which led them on to think that it looked like a helix structure containing nucleic acid chains and having phosphate groups on the outside. Without this photo we wouldn’t be where we are today. -
Linus Pauling
Pauling proposed a triple-helix structure with bases on the outside, but it was quickly denied by Watson and Cricks famous double-helix structure. He is also known for discovering the spiral-structure of proteins. -
Frederick Sanger
Fredrick Sanger discovered the amino acid sequence of 2 polypeptide chains bovine insulin. He discovered that the insulin had precise amino acid sequences and that every protein had a unique sequence. -
Matthew Meselson & Franklin Stahl
Matthew Meselson and Franklin Stahl are best known for inventing the technique of density gradient centrifugation and used this to prove that DNA is replicated semi-conservatively. -
James Watson & Frances Crick
Watson and Crick were the scientists who determined the double helix structure of DNA based off of Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins photo of DNA. They also discovered that DNA replicates and splits into 2 strands becoming a new double helix template for a new strand of DNA. -
Paul Berg
In conjunction with his studies of the tumor virus SV40, in 1972, Paul Berg succeeded in inserting DNA from a bacterium into the virus' DNA. He thereby created the first DNA molecule made of parts from different organisms. This type of molecule became known as "hybrid DNA" or "recombinant DNA". -
Kary Mullis
In 1985, Kary Mullis invented the process known as polymerase chain reaction (PCR), in which a small amount of DNA can be copied in large quantities over a short period of time. By applying heat, the DNA molecule\'s two strands are separated and the DNA building blocks that have been added are bonded to each strand. -
J. Craig Venter
John Craig Venter is known for leading the first draft sequence of the human genome and assembled the first team to transfect a cell with a synthetic chromosome.
