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P.A. Levene
P.A. Levene determined the basic structures of nucleotides that make up DNA. Nucleotides are the subunits of nucleic acids and constant of five-carbon sugar, a phosphate group, and a nitrogeneous base. -
Fredrick Griffith
Created the first major experiment that led to the discovery of DNA as the genetic material. Griffith studied two strains of the bacteria Strepococcus pneumoniae, which causes pneumonia. He found out that one strain can be transformed,or changed into another form. -
Maurice Wilkins
Maurice Wilkins a British physicist, joined other scientist to find out the meaning and importance of Chargiff's chart. -
Oswald Avery
Oswald and some of his colleagues identified the molecule that transformed the R strain of bacteria in the S strain. Avery isolated different macromolecules, such as DNA, protiens, and lipids from killed S cells. Then he exposed live R cells to the macromolecules seperatly. When the live R cells were exposed to the S strain DNA, they were transformed into S cells. He concluded that when S cells were killed, DNA was released. -
Erwin Chargaff
Erwin Chargaff anayzled the amount of adenine, guanine, thymine, and cytosine in the DNA of different species. He found out that the amount of guanine nearly equals the amount of cytosine and the amount of adenine nearly equals the amount of thymine within a species. -
Hershey and Chase
Alfred Hershey and Martha Chase published resaults of experiments that provided definitive evidence that DNA is the transforming factor. These experiments involved a bacteriophage, a type of virus that attacks bacteria. He first had to confirm that DNA is a gentic material and then that DNA was made of protein. -
Rosalind Franklin
Joined the staff at King's College and took the famous Photo 51 and collected data eventually used by Watson and Crick. Photo 51 showed that DNA was a double helix, or twisted latter shape. -
Francis Crick
Measured the width of the helix and spaces of the bases. -
Linus Pauling
Pauling was one of the founders of quantom chemistry and molecular biology. -
James Watson
Measured the width of the helix along with the spacing of the bases. Together Watson and Crick built a model of the double helix that conformed to the others' research.
