Friedrich Miescher discovers DNA in his preparations of white blood cells extracted from the pus in surgical bandages. He calls it ‘nuclein’.
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William Henry Bragg and son William Lawrence Bragg lay the foundations for the field of X-ray crystallography when they realise they can infer the structure of crystals from the patterns of scattered X-rays.
Phoebus Levene discovers nucleotides – the combination of a sugar, base and phosphate group – and suggests they form short lengths of DNA called ‘tetranucleotides’.
Florence Bell arrives in William Astbury’s lab and takes the first X-ray images of DNA. Astbury makes an attempt at a structure the following year.
Oswald Avery, Colin MacLeod and Maclyn McCarty demonstrate that DNA is the material controlling inheritance.
Rosalind Franklin takes ‘Photo 51’, a highly detailed image of the ‘B’ or hydrated form of DNA. The photo is later seen by James Watson without her knowledge.
James Watson and Francis Crick propose a model for the structure of the DNA molecule.
DNA from two different organisms is spliced together for the first time by Paul Berg, paving the way for genetic modification and GM foods.
Dolly the sheep is born. Dolly is the first mammal cloned from a non-embryonic cell. Her DNA is identical to the sheep she was cloned from.
After £3bn and 13 years of work, the Human Genome Project is completed and the entire genome of a human being is published. Today, people can get their genome sequenced in a matter of hours for around £100.
President Barack Obama announced plans to sequence the genomes of one million US citizens to help personalise medicine and learn more about rare diseases. Authors