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Friedrich Miescher
He isolated "nuclein," DNA with associated proteins, from cell nuclei. He was the first to identify DNA as a distinct molecule. He was an excellent student who also happened to have a hearing handicap. -
Frederick Griffith
He conducted an experiment involving two strains of the bacterium, Streptococcus pneumoniae; one strain was lethal to mice and the other was harmless. He studied genetics at Liverpool University. -
Oswald Avery, Maclyn McCarty & Colin McCleod
They worked on how DNA transmits hereditary. They showed that DNA can transform the properties of cells, clarifying the chemical nature of genes. -
Barbara McClintock
She discovered that some genes could be mobile. She also found a chromosome-breaking locus that could change its position within a chromosome. She received a B.S. in 1923, a master’s degree two years later, and, having specialized in cytology, genetics, and zoology, a Ph.D. in 1927. -
Erwin Chargaff
His best known achievement was to show that in natural DNA the number of guanine units equals the number of cytosine units and the number of adenine units equals the number of thymine units. He also disliked chemistry much more than he expected to. -
Linus Pauling
He worked out the nature of the chemical bond and also discovered the cause of sickle cell anemia, developed an accurate oxygen meter for submarines, helped create synthetic plasma, and determined the structure of proteins. He has been awarded a Nobel Prize and a Nobel Peace Prize. -
Alfred Hershey & Martha Chase
They proved that protein was not genetic material and that DNA was genetic material. Martha Chase was Alfred Hershey’s research assistant. In 1962, Alfred Hershey became the director of the Genetics Research Unit. -
Rosalind Franklin & Maurice Wilkins
They discovered the physical and chemical basis of how characteristics are passed down through the generations and how they are expressed in individual organisms. Rosalind was a research fellow at King’s College. -
James Watson and Frances Crick
They determined the double-helix structure of DNA, the molecule containing human genes. They were both scientists from Cambridge University -
Frederick Sanger
By obtaining a protein sequence, he proved that proteins were ordered molecules and by analogy, the genes and DNA that make these proteins should have an order or sequence as well. In 1940 he began studying for his PhD with the study of whether edible protein could be obtained from grass but later changed the subject to the study of lysine and the nitrogen of potatoes. -
Paul Berg
He succeeded in inserting DNA from a bacterium into the virus' DNA. He then created the first DNA molecule made of parts from different organisms. He became an assistant professor of microbiology at the University of Washington School of Medicine in 1956. -
Matthew Meselson & Franklin Stahl
They were able to conclude that each strand in a DNA molecule serves as a template for synthesis of a new, complementary strand (that DNA replicated semi-conservatively). Their experiment stemmed from a debate in the 1950s among scientists about how DNA replicated, or copied, itself. -
Kary Mullis
He invented a process called the polymerase chain reaction, where a small amount of DNA can be copied in large quantities over a short period of time. He designed rockets with some of his friends for a few years earlier on. -
J. Craig Venter
Venter worked on The Human Genome Project which had a goal of determining the base pairs that make up human DnA and identifying and mapping all of the genes of the human genome from both physical and functional standpoints. He eventually determined the genomic sequence of Haemophilus influenzae.
