Discovering DNA: The Biochemist

A fatal mistake erased a lifetime of brilliant discoveries

1. Phoebus Aaron Theodor Levene

In 1908, a biochemist ensconced at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research in New York worked away at deciphering the chemistry of nucleic acids, and had just published a paper describing the linear construction of these nuclear compounds.

Phoebus Aaron Theodor Levene, and his student J. A. Mandel, described a linear complex with a phosphoric acid, a carbohydrate (sugar), and a base forming a subunit they called a mononucleotide, with two or more mononucleotides bound together to form what they called a polyphosphoric acid, or polynucleotide. The illustration of their best guess of how this polynucleotide compound was linked together is shown below, and is taken from their paper. Although this model was not quite correct, it was a major advance in the understanding of nucleic acids at the time, and Levene would continue to refine and improve his model in the ensuing decades. Levene’s story is one of a historically neglected, falsely reviled, and truly brilliant scientist who needs his day in the sun alongside Mendel, Darwin, and other great scientists celebrated today.