Frederick Griffith was a bacteriologist who focused on two strains of the bacteria Streptococcus pneumoniae, also known as pneumonia. Griffith conducted the first experiment that led to the discover of DNA in 1928. The pneumonia that he had came in two forms- rough and smooth. The sugar coated strain caused pneumonia and was called the smooth strain and the non-coated strain was harmless and was called the rough stain. He tested the two different bacterial on mice and watched how that reacted to the bacterias. Then he injected both into some mice and noticed how the smooth strain converted the rough strain to a smooth strain. This experiment intrigued many other scientists to try and figure out how the bacteria changed and what the transforming substance was. His discoveries on how the smooth strain converted the rough strain perplexed people and caused many scientists to continue on searching for this mysterious chemical. Without his discoveries people would have never have pushed on to discover DNA and there would never be a model of DNA.

Fredrick Griffith