From pediatrics to laboratory research
Born in South Bend, Indiana, McCarty earned his medical degree at Johns Hopkins University and trained in pediatrics. He later joined Avery’s research programme, bringing biochemical methods to the problem of pneumococcal transformation.
Analysing an active DNA fraction
McCarty helped refine extraction and purification methods and used chemical and enzymatic tests to examine transforming activity. With Avery and MacLeod, he reported in 1944 that a pneumococcal DNA fraction could induce an inherited change of bacterial type.
Streptococcal research and institutional work
McCarty began leading his own laboratory on group A streptococci in 1946. He later served as physician-in-chief of Rockefeller University Hospital and as a university vice president. He also maintained a long association with the Journal of Experimental Medicine as an editor.
References: [1]