jan 1, 1869 - Friedrich Miescher's Discovery of DNA

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Miescher was a Swiss scientist that lived in the 1800s and was the first person to isolate DNA. He went to the University of Tübingen to study under Felix Hoppe-Seyler in the newly established faculty of natural science. Hoppe-Seyler's laboratory was one of the first to focus on tissue chemistry. At a time when scientists were still debating the concept of "cell," Hoppe-Seyler and his lab were isolating the molecules that made up cells. Miescher was given the task of researching the composition of white blood cells. These cells were difficult to extract, but they were found in great quantities in the pus from infections. Miescher collected bandages from a hospital and washed off the pus. He experimented and isolated a new molecule - nuclein from the cell nucleus. He determined that nuclein was made up of hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and phosphorus and there was a unique ratio of phosphorus to nitrogen. He was able to isolate nuclein from other cells and later used salmon sperm as a source of nuclein, which would be later known as nucleic acid.

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