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Friedrich Miescher
Identified "nuclein" DNA with associated proteins, from studying white blood cells. The contribution was the first to discover DNA existence. He used bandages from a nearby clinic and washed off puss. -
Frederick Griffith
Showed bacteria can distinctly change their function and form through transportation. Contribution was suggesting bacteria are capable of transferring genetic information. -
Oswald Avery, Maclyn McMarty, and Colin McCleod
Identified DNA as the "transforming principle" that isolated DNA as the material genes. This contributes to the connection of DNA to genetic information and the transformations. They did not win the Nobel Prize. -
Erwin Chargaff
Discovered that amounts of adenine and thymine in DNA were close to the same. He found that the same is also true for guanine and cytosine. Helped develop more accurate structures and was a professor of biochem. -
Alfred Hershey and Martha Chase
Proved DNA carried genetic information by using the blender experiment. Also concluded it was not a protein. Martha Chase died from pneumonia. -
Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins
Created the idea of the double helix model. Franklin took photos and helped Watson and Crick create the structure. Helped contribute to the discovery of the structure of DNA. Franklin died of cancer at age 37. -
James Watson and Frances Crick
Watson and Crick determined the shape of DNA. They came to the conclusion that the shape is a double helix. They used cardboard cutouts and made models with scrap metal and wire. Crick said "we had found the secret of life" while walking into a pub. -
Matthew Meselson and Franklin Stahl
The experiment they did was named after them. This stemmed from a 50s debate on how DNA is replicated. They proved that each daughter cell had conserved parental DNA. This proved that Watson and Crick right that the shape of DNA is a double helix. -
Linus Pauling
Researched the native of chemical bonds and its applicator to the dedication of the structure of complex structures. Used proteins and spiral structures. -
Paul Berg
He is an American biochemist. He is famous for his work in gene splicing of recombinant DNA. He created a molecule containing DNA from 2 species. He was a professor at Stanford. -
Frederick Sanger
Sanger joined the group of Charles Chiball. There, they worked on on sequencing insulin. From 1951, Sanger worked on sequencing RNA. After that, he worked on sequencing DNA. In 1977, Sanger and associates introduced the diedoxy chain termination method for sequencing DNA. -
Barbara McClintock
She was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for her discovery of the genetic transposition. She is the only woman to win the Nobel Prize in that field. Her work lasted from the 40s to the 80s. -
Kary Mullis
Mullis invented improvements to the polymerase chain reaction. Had the idea to use a pair of primers to bracket DNA, making rapid DNA amplification possible. -
J. Craig Venter
Venter and associate Francis Collins announced that they were going to map the human genome. In 2001, the Human Genome project published the first human genome. They did not use the shotgun sequencing. Instead they used the clone-by-clone method.
