ABSTRACT
Johan Friedrich Miescher studied medicine in Basel and Gottingen. After completing his medical studies, Miescher became interested in the chemistry of natural products, especially in the cell nucleus. Although Miescher discovered DNA and protamines, premature death prevented him from further scientific exploits in this field. It was another student of Hoppe-Seyler, Albrecht Kossel, who laid a solid scientific base for the biochemical research on the cell nucleus, especially its proteins. During his life, among other honors Kossel received honorary degrees from the Universities in Cambridge, Dublin, Genf, Greifswald, St. Andrews, and Edinburgh, and was a member of numerous Academies of Science in several countries. During his very productive scientific life, Kossel published numerous papers describing his discoveries of histones, adenine, theophylline, histidine, etc. It is difficult to find a major university or research institute without one or more investigators studying the chemistry or biology of nuclear proteins.
