Avery-MacLeod-McCarty Spencer Lazar & Matthew Lindenbaum

Historical Background Oswald Avery Canadian born Graduated from Colgate University, and received MD from Colombia University Colin MacLeod Attended McGill University Maclyn McCarty Attended Stanford University, and graduated Johns Hopkins Medical School They conducted their research at US Naval Lab from 1936-1944

Experiment Avery, MacLeod, and McCarty expanded the work of Frederick Griffith Griffith conducted his experiments in 1928 He inserted two strains of Streptococcus pneumoniae (virulent strain type III-S and non-virulent type II-R) into mice Found that bacteria was transformed, but he did not know the reason why or what the transformation factor was Utilized similar techniques in order demonstrate transformation

Procedure Avery, MacLeod, and McCarty’s goal was to discover what the transformation factor was. They used specific enzymes to remove the possible transforming factors individually. When Avery, MacLeod , and McCarty mixed the heat killed, virulent III-S with the non-virulent II-R strain they saw that the non-virulent strain was transformed into the virulent strain The virulent properties were passed on At the time, it was widely hypothesized that protein was the transformation factor, and not DNA

Contribution to field of biotechnology Proved DNA was the transforming factor Avery, MacLeod, and McCarty shifted the focus from proteins to DNA Future scientists focus on DNA because Avery, MacLeod, and McCarty set the precedent Their work was not acknowledged until years after their research. It was not until after their experiments were repeated until people finally accepted that their results were valid The Nobel Foundation later expressed their regret for not awarding them a Nobel Piece Prize

Works cited https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tcyul43ac5c http://www.austincc.edu/emeyerth/dnagen.htm http://www.worldlibrary.org/articles/avery-macleod- mccarty_experiment#Reception_and_legacy http://www.genome.gov/25520250 http://www.genomenewsnetwork.org/resources/timeline/1944_Avery.php