From medicine to bacterial chemistry
Born in Halifax, Canada, Avery received his medical degree in 1904. After a brief period in practice, he entered the Hoagland Laboratory in Brooklyn in 1907 and developed a chemical approach to bacteriology. Rufus Cole recruited him to the Rockefeller Institute’s pneumonia research programme in 1913.
References: [1]
Identifying the transforming material
The team studied differences between pneumococcal types. Its 1944 paper described a highly purified DNA fraction from type III bacteria that could transform rough type II organisms into smooth type III organisms, with the new characteristics inherited by later generations. Chemical, enzymatic and physical tests supported DNA as the material responsible for this experimental transformation.
A collaborative research programme
The result depended on earlier transformation experiments, reproducible laboratory methods and biochemical analysis, with major contributions from MacLeod and McCarty. Avery became emeritus in 1943 but continued laboratory work until 1948. He then moved to Nashville, where he died in 1955.