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Kossel went on to show that nucleic acid contained purine and pyrimidine bases, a sugar and phosphate. Miescher, Richard Altmann and Albrecht Kossel further characterised ‘nuclein’ and the name was changed to nucleic acid by Altmann. Almost all molecular bioscience graduates would have repeated a form of this experiment in laboratory classes where DNA is isolated from cells. Although initially interested in all the components of the cell, Miescher quickly focussed on the nucleus because he observed that when treated with acid, a precipitate was formed which he called ‘nuclein’. He wanted to determine the chemical composition of leucocytes (white blood cells), his source of leucocytes was pus from fresh surgical bandages.

DNA was discovered in 1869 by a Swiss biochemist, Friedrich Miescher.