In 1869, a Swiss physician-cum-biochemist while checking pus-filled surgical bandages made this remarkable discovery accidently . The scientist was Friedrich Miescher, a physician and biochemist from Switzerland. While studying white blood cells collected from surgical bandages, he isolated a substance that was different from proteins known at the time. He named the material “nuclein” because it was found in the cell nucleus. This substance was later renamed nucleic acid and eventually deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA. Although the significance of DNA was not understood immediately, Miescher’s research became one of the most important discoveries in the history of biology.
