Frederick Griffith was a British bacteriologist whose 1928 experiments with pneumococcus bacteria in mice provided the first demonstration of what he called bacterial transformation, an inheritable change in an organism caused by material taken up from its environment. Griffith found that when he mixed a harmless strain of bacteria with a heat-killed, previously virulent strain, the harmless bacteria could acquire the ability to cause disease and could pass that new trait on to their descendants, even though the virulent bacteria used to produce the effect had been killed beforehand. Griffith himself did not identify the specific chemical substance responsible for this transformation, and it was left to Oswald Avery and his colleagues, working from Griffith's discovery roughly fifteen years later, to identify that substance as DNA. Griffith's transformation experiment is now regarded as one of the pivotal findings that set the stage for identifying the chemical nature of the gene, though Griffith himself died in a bombing raid during the Second World War before his discovery's full significance was established.
Facts
Birth YearSourced to the subject's own account Death YearSourced to the subject's own account FieldSourced to the subject's own account Death PlaceSourced to the subject's own account NationalitySourced to the subject's own account Notable WorkSourced to the subject's own accountThe 1928 transformation experiment showing that pneumococcus bacteria change form and function, an early pointer toward DNA as the hereditary material 1 BirthplaceSourced to the subject's own accountPrescot, Merseyside (Lancashire), England 1 Disputed
Death DateSourced to the subject's own accountPrimary Griffith Memorial Lecture accounts conflict: the first lecture gives the night of 17 April 1941, the fourth lecture gives February 1941 in his apartment; both agree he died during the World War II London Blitz alongside colleague William M. Scott. Connections
Conducted
Griffith reported bacterial transformation in Streptococcus pneumoniae in 1928, sixteen years before Avery, MacLeod and McCarty traced the transforming principle to DNA.
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1. Frederick Griffith (Wikipedia)
WikipediaLead paragraph, sentence 1 (birth year)
Frederick Griffith (1877-1941) was a British bacteriologist whose focus was the epidemiology and pathology of bacterial pneumonia.
Lead paragraph, sentence 1 (death year)
Frederick Griffith (1877-1941) was a British bacteriologist whose focus was the epidemiology and pathology of bacterial pneumonia.
Last days section
the first Griffith Memorial Lecture indicates that Fred Griffith died on the night of 17 April 1941 ... alongside friend and colleague William M. Scott amid an air raid during World War II's London Blitz.
Early life section, sentence 1
Frederick Griffith was born in Prescot, Merseyside (formerly in Lancashire) England, in late 1877 (Registered December quarter in Prescot, Lancashire registration district, vol 8b, page 670), and attended Liverpool University.
Lead paragraph, sentence 1 (nationality)
Frederick Griffith (1877-1941) was a British bacteriologist whose focus was the epidemiology and pathology of bacterial pneumonia.
Lead paragraph, sentence 1 (field)
Frederick Griffith (1877-1941) was a British bacteriologist whose focus was the epidemiology and pathology of bacterial pneumonia.
Lead paragraph, sentence 1 (contribution)
In January 1928 he reported what is now known as Griffith's experiment, the first widely accepted demonstrations of bacterial transformation, whereby a bacterium distinctly changes its form and function.
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