Maclyn McCarty Dies at 93; Pioneer in DNA Research
NY Times
Dr. Maclyn McCarty, the last surviving member of a Manhattan scientific team that overturned medical dogma in the 1940’s and became the first to demonstratethat genes were made of DNA, died on Sunday. He was 93 and lived in New York.
His death was announced by Rockefeller University, where he worked for more than 60 years.
Dr. McCarty was also a renowned leader in research on the biology and immunochemistry of the streptococcus bacterium and its role in producing rheumatic fever.
The work that Dr. McCarty did in the 1940’s, with Dr. Oswald T. Avery and Dr. Colin MacLeod, strongly hinted that DNA was the stuff of life and paved the way for the field of molecular biology and genetic engineering. Their evidence came from experiments on the pneumococcus, at what was then known as the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research.
The Transforming Principle: Discovering That Genes Are Made of DNA
