Oswald Avery

Name	Oswald Avery
Caption	Oswald Avery in 1937
Birth place	Halifax
Citizenship	American
Nationality	Canada
Field	molecular biology
Work institutions	Rockefeller University Hospital
Known for	DNA transmits heredity

Oswald Theodore Avery (October 21, 1877 – February 2, 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 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 Nobel laureate Arne Tiselius said that Avery was the most deserving scientist not to receive the Nobel Prize for his work.

The lunar crater Avery was named in his honor.

Biography

Avery was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia. His father was a Baptist minister, who was invited to move to New York City in 1887 to lead a congregation. Avery received his AB degree in 1900 from Colgate University. He earned an M.D. degree from the Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1904. He practiced medicine in New York City until 1907 when he became a researcher at Hoagland Laboratory in Brooklyn, New York. As an adult, Avery suffered from hyperthyroidism (Graves disease) and he underwent thyroid surgery in 1934. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1936.

Breakthrough discovery

For many years, genetic information was thought to be contained in cell protein. Continuing the research done by Frederick Griffith in 1927, 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 could 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.

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 son, "It's lots of fun to blow bubbles but it's wiser to prick them yourself before someone else tries to."

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.

Bibliography

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 of their Profiles in Science series.

References

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

Sri Kantha S: Avery's non-recognition in Nobel awards. BioEssays, 1989; 10: 131.

Other sources

External links

Key Participants: Oswald T. Avery - Linus Pauling and the Race for DNA: A Documentary History

OswalD Avery Papers finding aid at the Tennessee State Library and Archives

Category:1877 births Category:1955 deaths Category:Canadian expatriate academics in the United States Category:Geneticists Category:Molecular biologists Category:Colgate University alumni Category:Canadian people of English descent Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Category:Foreign Members of the Royal Society Category:People from Halifax, Nova Scotia Category:People from New York City Category:Recipients of the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research Category:Recipients of the Copley Medal Category:Rockefeller University people Category:Microbiologists Category:American medical researchers Category:Columbia Medical School alumni Category:People in the history of medicine