Oswald Theodore Avery in 1937

Double Helix Discovery
William Astbury
Oswald Avery
Francis Crick
Erwin Chargaff
Max Delbrück
Jerry Donohue
Rosalind Franklin
Raymond Gosling
Phoebus Levene
Linus Pauling
Sir John Randall
Erwin Schrödinger
Alec Stokes
James Watson
Maurice Wilkins
Herbert Wilson

Oswald Theodore Avery (October 21, 1877–2 February 1955) was a Canadian-born American physician and medical researcher. The major part of his career was spent at the Rockefeller University Hospital in New York City. Avery was one of the first molecular biologists and was a pioneer in immunochemistry, but he is best known for his discovery in 1944 with his co-workers Colin MacLeod and Maclyn McCarty that DNA is the material of which genes and chromosomes are made. The Discovery of the DNA Double Helix Molecular structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid by James D. Watson and Francis H. Crick. ... The Discovery of the DNA Double Helix Molecular structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid by James D. Watson and Francis H. Crick. ... Image File history File links Dna-split2. ... William Astbury (1898-1961) was an English biochemist who made X-ray diffraction studies of nucleic acid in 1937. ... Francis Harry Compton Crick OM FRS (8 June 1916 – 28 July 2004), (Ph. ... // Erwin Chargaff (Czernowitz, August 11, 1905 – New York City, USA, June 20, 2002) was an Austrian biochemist who emigrated to the United States during the Nazi era. ... Max Delbrück in the early 1940s at Vanderbilt University. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Rosalind Elsie Franklin (25 July 1920 Kensington, London – 16 April 1958 Chelsea, London) was an English biophysicist and crystallographer who made important contributions to the understanding of the fine structures of DNA, viruses, coal and graphite. ... The joke funeral card in the names of Rosalind Franklin and Raymond Gosling Raymond Gosling is a distinguished scientist who worked with both Maurice Wilkins and Rosalind Franklin at Kings College London in deducing the structure of DNA. He was born in 1926 and attended school in Wembley. ... Molecular diagram of a hypothetical tetranucleotide, as proposed (incorrectly) by Phoebus Levene around 1910. ... Linus Carl Pauling (February 28, 1901 – August 19, 1994) was an American scientist, peace activist, author and educator of German ancestry. ... Sir John Randall Sir John Randall (March 23, 1905 – June 16, 1984) was a British physicist, credited with radical improvement of the cavity magnetron, an essential component of the centimetre radar, which was one of the keys to the Allied victory in the Second World War. ... Schrödinger in 1933, when he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics Bust of Schrödinger, in the courtyard arcade of the main building, University of Vienna, Austria. ... Alec Stokes (Alexander Rawson Stokes, June 27, 1919–February 5, 2003) was one of the key contributors in the original DNA research team at Kings College London. ... James Dewey Watson (born April 6, 1928) is an American molecular biologist, best known as one of the co-discoverers of the structure of DNA. Watson, Francis Crick, and Maurice Wilkins were awarded the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic... Maurice Hugh Frederick Wilkins CBE FRS (15 December 1916 – 5 October 2004) was a New Zealand-born British molecular biologist, and Nobel Laureate who contributed research in the fields of phosphorescence, radar, isotope separation, and X-ray diffraction. ... Professor Herbert Wilson (1929 —) is a physicist, who was one of the original team who worked on the structure of DNA at Kings College London. ... is the 294th day of the year (295th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1877 (MDCCCLXXVII) was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... is the 33rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1955 (MCMLV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays the 1955 Gregorian calendar). ... Main articles: History of Canada, Timeline of Canadian history Canada has been inhabited by aboriginal peoples (known in Canada as First Nations) for at least 40,000 years. ... For other uses, see Doctor. ... For the chemical substances known as medicines, see medication. ... For the suburb of Melbourne, Australia, see Research, Victoria. ... Founders Hall Rockefeller University is a private university focusing primarily on graduate and postgraduate education research in the biomedical fields, located between 63rd and 68th Streets along York Avenue, on the Upper East Side of Manhattan island in New York City, New York. ... For the town in the Republic of Ireland, see Hospital, County Limerick. ... New York, New York and NYC redirect here. ... Molecular biology is the study of biology at a molecular level. ... Immunology is a broad branch of biomedical science that covers the study of all aspects of the immune system in all organisms. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Year 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Colin Munro MacLeod (1909 – 1972) was a Canadian-American geneticist. ... Maclyn McCarty (June 9, 1911–January 2, 2005) was an American geneticist. ... The structure of part of a DNA double helix Deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA, is a nucleic acid molecule that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms. ... For other uses, see Gene (disambiguation). ... A scheme of a condensed (metaphase) chromosome. ...

The Nobel laureate Arne Tiselius said that Avery was the most deserving scientist not to receive the Nobel Prize for his work.^[1] The Nobel Prize (Swedish: ) was established in Alfred Nobels will in 1895, and it was first awarded in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, and Peace in 1901. ... Arne Wilhelm Kaurin Tiselius (Stockholm 10 August 1902 – Uppsala 29 October 1971), Swedish biochemist. ...

The lunar crater Avery was named in his honor. Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... Avery is a small lunar crater located near the eastern limb of the Moon. ...

Early life and career

Oswald Theodore Avery was born on October 21, 1877 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The second of three sons of Elizabeth Crowdy and Joseph Francis Avery. A Baptist minister in England, Joseph Avery and his wife emigrated to Canada in 1873. Established as a well-respected pastor in Halifax, he moved his family to New York City in 1887, where he was appointed pastor of the Mariner's Temple Baptist mission church on the lower East Side. Each member of the family participated in the church: Elizabeth was involved with charities and the newsletter while young "Ossie" and his oldest brother, Ernest, often played clarinet on the church steps to attract new attendees. Ernest died early in 1892 at the age of eighteen, probably from tuberculosis. Several months later, Reverend Avery also died. Following their deaths, the then fifteen-year old Oswald assumed the paternal role for his youngest brother, Roy, a part he would also play some years later to his cousin, Minnie Wandell, whom Roy often affectionately referred to as "little sister." The City of Halifax (1841-1996) was the capital of the province of Nova Scotia, and the largest city in Atlantic Canada. ... Categories: Manhattan neighborhoods | Stub ...

After attending the New York Male Grammar School, Avery went to the Colgate Academy and then Colgate University, where he excelled in literature, public speaking, and debate. While at Colgate, he was a classmate of Harry Emerson Fosdick, who would become one of the most notable clergymen in America; it is likely that when Avery started at Colgate he also intended to enter the ministry. Avery received a BA in the humanities in 1900. For reasons that are not clear, and despite the absence of any scientific background, after college Avery chose a career in medicine and entered the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York. He received his medical degree in 1904. Colgate University is a highly selective, private liberal arts college located in the Village of Hamilton in Madison County, New York, USA. It was founded in 1819 as a Baptist seminary, but has since become non-denominational. ... Harry Emerson Fosdick (1879-1969) was the most prominent liberal baptist minister of the early 20th Century. ... Columbia University Medical Center is name of the medical complex associated with Columbia University located in Washington Heights area of Manhattan. ...

Desiring greater intellectual stimulation, and frustrated by his inability to help some of his patients, Avery moved in 1907 to laboratory work at the Hoagland Laboratory in Brooklyn, the first privately endowed bacteriological research institute in the United States. Since the laboratory was also associated with a Long Island hospital, Avery's duties included teaching student nurses. It was here that he acquired his best known and most enduring nickname, "The Professor," which was often affectionately shortened to "Fess." The Hoagland Laboratory's director, Benjamin White, instructed Avery in laboratory techniques and biochemistry. Avery initially worked on the bacteriology of yogurt, but soon developed an interest in tuberculosis after White suffered a severe case of the infectious pulmonary disease. It was during this time that Avery established what his biographer René J. Dubos called the pattern of his career, the "systematic effort to understand the biological activities of pathogenic bacteria through a knowledge of their chemical composition." This article is about the borough of New York City. ... This article is about Long Island in New York State. ... Microbiology (in Greek micron = small and biologia = studying life) is the study of microorganisms, including unicellular (single-celled) eukaryotes and prokaryotes, fungi, and viruses. ... Yoghurt Yoghurt or yogurt, less commonly yoghourt or yogourt, is a dairy product produced by bacterial fermentation of milk. ... Tuberculosis (abbreviated as TB for tubercle bacillus or Tuberculosis) is a common and deadly infectious disease caused by mycobacteria, mainly Mycobacterium tuberculosis. ... René Dubos René Jules Dubos (February 20, 1901 – February 20, 1982), was a French-born American microbiologist, experimental pathologist, environmentalist, humanist, and Pulitzer Prize-winning author who exemplified qualities of the modern Renaissance person. ... Phyla Actinobacteria Aquificae Chlamydiae Bacteroidetes/Chlorobi Chloroflexi Chrysiogenetes Cyanobacteria Deferribacteres Deinococcus-Thermus Dictyoglomi Fibrobacteres/Acidobacteria Firmicutes Fusobacteria Gemmatimonadetes Lentisphaerae Nitrospirae Planctomycetes Proteobacteria Spirochaetes Thermodesulfobacteria Thermomicrobia Thermotogae Verrucomicrobia Bacteria (singular: bacterium) are unicellular microorganisms. ...

Avery received U.S. citizenship on August 1, 1918. He served as a captain in the U. S. Army Medical Corps from September 1918 until January 1919. In 1923 he became a faculty member at the Rockefeller Institute, where he worked until his retirement in 1948. He moved to Nashville, Tennessee in 1949 to be near his brother and family^[2], and died there in 1955. is the 213th day of the year (214th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1918 (MCMXVIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. ... The Army is the branch of the United States armed forces which has primary responsibility for land-based military operations. ... Nashville redirects here. ...

Breakthrough discovery

For many years, genetic information was thought to be contained in cell protein. Continuing the research done by Frederick Griffith in 1928, Avery worked with MacLeod and McCarty on the mystery of inheritance. He had received emeritus status from the Rockefeller Institute in 1943, but continued working for five years, proving that not all breakthrough discoveries are achieved by younger people (by this time he was in his late sixties). Techniques were available to remove various organic compounds from bacteria, and if the remaining organic compounds were still able to cause R strain bacteria to transform then the substances removed couldn't be the carrier of genes. S strain bacteria first had the large cellular structures removed. Then they were treated with protease enzymes, which removed the proteins from the cells before the remainder was placed with R strain bacteria. The R strain bacteria transformed, meaning that proteins didn't carry the genes for causing the disease. Then the remnants of the R strain bacteria were treated with a deoxyribonuclease enzyme which removed the DNA. After this treatment, the R strain bacteria no longer transformed. This indicated that DNA was the carrier of genes in cells. Drawing of the structure of cork as it appeared under the microscope to Robert Hooke from Micrographia which is the origin of the word cell being used to describe the smallest unit of a living organism Cells in culture, stained for keratin (red) and DNA (green) The cell is the... A representation of the 3D structure of myoglobin showing coloured alpha helices. ... Frederick Griffith (1879 - 1941) was a British medical officer. ... Year 1928 (MCMXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... See Heredity (disambiguation) for other meanings. ... Emeritus (IPA pronunciation: or ) is an adjective that is used in the title of a retired professor, bishop or other professional. ... Benzene is the simplest of the arenes, a family of organic compounds An organic compound is any member of a large class of chemical compounds whose molecules contain carbon. ... Proteases (proteinases, peptidases, or proteolytic enzymes) are enzymes that break peptide bonds between amino acids of proteins. ... Ribbon diagram of the enzyme TIM, surrounded by the space-filling model of the protein. ... A deoxyribonuclease (DNase, for short) is any enzyme that catalyzes the hydrolytic cleavage of phosphodiester linkages in the DNA backbone. ...

Alfred Hershey and Martha Chase furthered Avery's research in 1952 with the Hershey-Chase experiment. These experiments paved the way for Watson and Crick's discovery of the helical structure of DNA, and thus the birth of modern genetics and molecular biology. Of this event, Avery wrote in a letter to his brother, "It's lots of fun to blow bubbles but it's wiser to prick them yourself before someone else tries to." Alfred Day Hershey (December 4, 1908 – May 22, 1997) was an American Nobel Prize-winning bacteriologist. ... Martha Cowles Chase (1927 – 2003) was a young laboratory assistant in the early 1950s when she and Alfred Hershey conducted one of the most famous experiments in 20th century biology. ... Year 1952 (MCMLII) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Hershey-Chase experiment was a series of experiments conducted in 1952 by Alfred Hershey and Martha Chase. ... James Dewey Watson (born April 6, 1928) is an American molecular biologist, best known as one of the co-discoverers of the structure of DNA. Watson, Francis Crick, and Maurice Wilkins were awarded the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic... Francis Harry Compton Crick OM FRS (8 June 1916 – 28 July 2004), (Ph. ... This article is about the shape. ... This article is about the general scientific term. ...

Nobel laureate Joshua Lederberg stated that Avery and his laboratory provided "the historical platform of modern DNA research" and "betokened the molecular revolution in genetics and biomedical science generally." Joshua Lederberg speaking at a conference in 1997 Joshua Lederberg (born May 23, 1925) is an American molecular biologist who is known for his work in genetics, artificial intelligence, and space exploration. ... This article is about the general scientific term. ...

Further reading

• René Dubos, The Professor, the Institute, and DNA: Oswald T. Avery, His Life and Scientific Achievements, 1976, Paul & Company, ISBN 0-87470-022-1

Collected papers

The collected papers of Avery are stored in two locations: the Tennessee State Library and Archives, and the Rockefeller Archive

Many of his papers, poems, and hand written lab-notes are available at the National Library of Medicine in the Oswald T. Avery Collection, the first^[3] of their Profiles in Science series.

His most important paper where he shows that DNA is the substance that makes up the genes is available on line: Avery, Oswald T., Colin M. MacLeod, and Maclyn McCarty. Studies on the Chemical Nature of the Substance Inducing Transformation of Pneumococcal Types. Journal of Experimental Medicine 79, 2 (February 1, 1944): 137-158.

References

Year 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 293rd day of the year (294th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 215th day of the year (216th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

• Kay, Alan (1970). "Avery, Oswald T.". Dictionary of Scientific Biography 1. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 342-343. ISBN 0684101149.