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Friedrich Miescher
Friedrich Miescher was the first to extract cell DNA from the nucleus of puss cells, determining that it was not a protein. Unfortunately, he never discovered its function. Interestingly, Miescher first called the substance he discovered “Nuclein”. -
Frederick Griffith
Griffith discovered that material could be carried from dead cells to living cells through the use of genetic material. Griffith’s discoveries helped to lead to the discovery of DNA through the “transformation principle”. -
Oswald Avery, Maclyn McCarty & Colin McCleod
By using enzymes to destroy protein, lipids, and nucleic acids, Avery, McCarty, and McCleod were able to determine that DNA acted as the transforming principle. Interestingly, Avery began his career in New York at a research institution hospital where he studied the cause of a certain type of pneumonia. -
Barbara McClintock
Barbara McClintock discovered the ability for certain genes to switch their positions within a chromosome. This was the first genetic instability to be discovered. An interesting fact about Barbara McClintock is that she has 3 siblings. -
Erwin Chargaff
Erwin Chargaff discovered the amount of Adenine, Thymine, Cytosine, and Guanine were proportional in all organisms, and that the amount of Adenine and Thymine are equal, and Cytosine and Guanine are equal. Chargaff’s discoveries later helped Watson and Crick to build their double helix model. -
Alfred Hershey & Martha Chase
Hershey and Chase proved that DNA is injected into cells, carrying instructions on how to build new viruses, and not proteins as previously thought. Sadly, Martha Chase was forced to quit her science career in the 1960s because of dementia. -
Rosalind Franklin & Maurice Wilkins
By utilising the x-ray crystallography technique, Franklin and Wilkins were able to produce a photograph of the structure of DNA (photo 51) and determined some interesting facts about the nature of DNA’s structure. Rosalind Franklin’s death may have been linked with her constant use of x-ray machines. -
James Watson & Frances Crick
After coming across Franklin and Wilkens’s photograph of DNA, Watson and Crick were able to create a model of what DNA looked like. WIthout photo 51, Watson and Crick would not have been able to see the structure of DNA and would have been unable to come to a conclusion about its structure. An interesting fact about Watson and Crick is that they both were very loud and enthusiastic, but that led them to be arrogant. -
Linus Pauling
Linus Pauling helped the scientific field by determining chemical bond structures and determining the attraction that certain atoms have in a covalent bond. Linus Pauling is the only person to have won 2 individual nobel prizes. -
Matthew Meselson & Franklin Stahl
By inventing density gradient centrifugation, Matthew Meselson and Franklin Stahl discovered that DNA replication involves an old DNA strand from the parent and a new DNA strand. Interestingly, Meselson and Stahl invented density gradient centrifugation specifically for this experiment. -
Frederick Sanger
Sanger discovered that DNA has a certain sequence to them, based on the discovery that proteins also have a sequence to them. Frederick Sanger was able to win a Nobel prize for his discovery. -
Paul Berg
Paul Berg is known as the father of biotechnology for his work in creating a hybrid DNA. He was able to inject DNA from a bacteria into the DNA of a virus, making the first cross of DNA between 2 different organisms. -
Kary Mullis
Kary Mullis invented the polymer chain reaction which allowed DNA to be replicated billions of times. This invention would allow DNA to be studied much easier than before because of the inability to obtain enough genetic material. An interesting fact is that Mullis won a nobel prize for this in 1993. -
J. Craig Venter
J. Craig Venter developed the use of small segments of DNA known as Expressed sequence tabs to identify unknown genes in cells. This made the process of cell identification much faster than before. An interesting fact about Venter is that he served in the Vietnam War before his discovery.
