ABSTRACT
Oswald Thodore Avery belonged to that small group of scientists who were primarily neither geneticists nor biologists of any kind but nevertheless contributed significantly to the advance of molecular genetics at a crucial moment in its progress. Avery graduated in 1900 and immediately entered the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University in New York. In 1930, when Dawson moved to the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Avery assigned another young investigator, J. L. Alloway, to continue the study of the phenomenon in vitro. Dubos stated that the successful collaboration of Avery, C. M. MacLeod, and M. McCarty was due to their skill in using a great diversity of methods ranging from the most physical to the most biological. Avery himself keenly followed the developments in genetics and also the implications of his own discovery within the broader context of genetics. Rene Dubos worked in the laboratory next to Avery’s at The Rocklefeller Institute from 1927 to 1942.
