Rollin Hotchkiss

Hotchkiss completed his chemistry doctorate at Yale in 1935 and joined Rockefeller that year. He initially studied pneumococcal capsules with Avery and Walter Goebel, then worked with René Dubos on antibiotic isolation, composition and action.

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Following the 1944 transformation paper, Hotchkiss investigated DNA purity and the possibility that traces of protein explained its activity. In 1951 he reported that highly purified DNA from resistant bacteria could transfer penicillin resistance independently of capsule type.

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With colleagues he subsequently examined the joint transfer of multiple markers, extending transformation research to linkage, recombination and DNA entry into cells. After retiring from Rockefeller in 1982, he remained involved in genetics and the history of science.

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