On 1 February 1944, the Journal of Experimental Medicine published one of the breakthrough discoveries of the 20th century: Oswald Avery (1877–1955), together with his colleagues Colin MacLeod (1909–1972) and Maclyn McCarty (1911–2005), reported that the transformation of pneumococcus bacteria from one type to another occured through the action of a ‘transforming … Avery and his colleagues published their discovery in a classic paper describing what came to be known as the Avery–MacLeod–McCarty experiment. 16 years later, in 1944, Oswald Avery, … Lived 1877 – 1955. They then killed the S-strain bacteria and mixed the remains with live R-strain bacteria. Avery, Macleod and McCarty Experiment. Oswald Avery, Colin MacLeod and Maclyn McCarty took up where Griffith's experiment left off and began purifying DNA from the other components of the virulent bacteria. He even suggested DNA might actually be the gene. A team of scientists led by Oswald Avery at the Rockefeller Institute, rigorously followed up on these experiments in the 1940's. While Griffith’s experiment had provided a surprising result, it wasn’t clear as to what component of the dead S strain bacteria were responsible for the transformation. Main Text. Start studying Oswald Avery experiment. Experiments of Hershey and Chase. Avery’s Team Makes a Major Contribution. They inactivated various substances in the S-strain bacteria. In 1943, American Oswald Avery proved that DNA carries genetic information. Based on Griffith’s experiment, Avery and his team isolated DNA and proved DNA to be the genetic material. Griffith’s Experiment Oswald Avery Avery continued working with Griffith’s findings in hope of discovering what factor in bacteria carried the trait of virulence. Starting in 1935, Oswald Avery, another researcher at the Rockefeller Institute, with his research associates Colin MacLeod and Maclyn McCarty, performed experiments that showed that DNA facilitated a genetic phenomenon in bacteria called bacterial transformation. Experiments by Frederick Griffith, Oswald Avery and his colleagues, and Alfred Hershey and Martha Chase. They found that a pure extract of the "transforming principle" was unaffected by treatment with protein-digesting enzymes but was destroyed by a DNA-digesting enzyme. Isolated proteins, carbohydrates, nucleic acids and applied them to non-virulent bacteria. We know about Griffith’s experiment and experiments that followed to discover the hereditary material in organisms. Oswald Avery led the team that discovered DNA passes heredity instructions through successive generations of organisms - it carries the chemical code of life. In the early 1940s, a team of scientists led by Oswald Avery tried to answer the question raised by Griffith’s results. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools. By extracting the water-soluble materials from bacteria and precipitating DNA using chloroform, Avery acquired a purified sample of DNA that he could use to transform bacteria. The experiment actually represented more than […]