Avery, Oswald

[person]

(October 21, 1877 - February 2, 1955) A Canadian-born American physician and medical researcher, considered one of the founders of immunochemistry, a branch of chemistry that deals with the immune system. Avery was part of the team, along with Maclyn McCarty and Colin MacLeod, which discovered that DNA is the genetic basis of life. Later, Avery served as president of the American Association of Immunologists, the American Association of Pathologists and Bacteriologists, and the Society of American Bacteriologists, and received numerous honors and recognitions for his medical research.