-
Gregor Mendel
Mendel discovered the basic principles of heredity through experiments with peas in his own garden. He laid the foundation of modern genetics. -
Walter Sutton
Walter Sutton believed that chromosomes are the basis of humanity. He also figured that the reduction of chromosomes during meiosis is related to mendel's law of inheritance. These theories were found to be true by observations made in the future. -
Fredrick Griffith
Griffith discovered pneumococcal transformation. He studied the pathology of bacterial pneumonia. He was also the first to show the role of DNA in hereditary. Fredrick Griffith's discovery's had a lasting impact on the medical field. -
Thomas Hunt Morgan
Morgan discovered that chormosomes play a role in heredity. He found this out by studying the mutation of fruit flies. His discoveries formed the basis of the modern science of genetics. -
Oswald Avery
Avery discovered the process of cell transformation. He also found out that DNA carries a cell's genetic material as apposed to protein which was formally believed. He is known for providing the historical platform of modern DNA research. -
Erwin Chargaff
Erwin Chargaff made two major discoveries that led to finding the structure of DNA. The first discovery was that in DNA, the number of guanine units equaled the number of cytosine units. The second was that the number of adenine units equals the number of thymine units. This was evidence that supported the base pairing that is known today. -
Rosalind Franklin
Rosalind's work on the x-ray diffraction images of DNA led to the dicovery of the DNA double helix, the basic structure of DNA. Her image of the DNA helped future scientists make a model of DNA. -
James Watson and Francis Crick
Together, they discovered the structure of DNA and made a model of it. The model was based on Rosalind Franklin's x-ray diffraction image. The the basics of the model that the pair made is still being used today. -
Alfred Hershey and Martha Chase
Alfred Hershey and Martha Chase discovered that when bacteriophages, which are composed of DNA and protein, infect bacteria, their DNA enters the host bacterial cell, but most of their protein does not. This experiment concluded that DNA is hereditary material, not proteins. -
Craig Ventor and Francis Collins
Craig Ventor and Francis Collins were the primary forces behind the Human Genone Project. They are credited with being the first to map and sequence human DNA. They both believed that finding the sequence of DNA would help the medical field fight diseases and make better medicine. -
Human Genone Project is Completed
The Human Genone Project was meant to discover the sequencing of DNA base pairs. The project stands as the world's largest collaborative biological project. A major discovery of the project was that there are 20,500 genes in human beings and that human genome has significantly more repeated sections of DNA than previously thought. This project led to advances in DNA sequencing technology.
