Maclyn McCarty (June 9, 1911 – January 2, 2005) was an American physician-scientist and microbiologist renowned for his pivotal role in establishing deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) as the molecule of heredity through the landmark Avery–MacLeod–McCarty experiment. Working at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, McCarty collaborated with Oswald T. Avery and Colin M. MacLeod to demonstrate that DNA, rather than proteins, serves as the transforming principle capable of genetically altering bacteria, a discovery published in 1944 that laid foundational groundwork for modern molecular biology. His lifelong focus on infectious diseases, particularly pneumococcal transformations and streptococcal immunology, advanced understanding of bacterial genetics and host-pathogen interactions.[1]Born in South Bend, Indiana, as the second of four sons to a family with a strong emphasis on education—his father worked for the Studebaker Corporation and his mother fostered a love of literature—McCarty attended multiple schools during his childhood due to his father's job relocations before graduating from Kenosha High School in Wisconsin. He enrolled at Stanford University in 1929, earning a bachelor's degree in biochemistry in 1933, then pursued medical training at Johns Hopkins University, from which he graduated with an M.D. in 1937, followed by a three-year pediatric residency at Johns Hopkins.[2] McCarty joined the Rockefeller Institute in 1941 and, after being drafted into the U.S. Navy in 1942, continued his research there as part of a naval medical research unit, where he remained for his entire career, rising to professor, vice president, and eventually professor emeritus at Rockefeller University. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1963 and directed the laboratory of streptococcal diseases starting in 1946.[3]Beyond the 1944 experiment, which involved purifying and characterizing the DNA responsible for type-specific transformations in Streptococcus pneumoniae, McCarty's research elucidated the structure and antigenic properties of streptococcal cell walls, contributing to insights on rheumatic fever and C-reactive protein (CRP), a key inflammatory marker he helped purify.[1] In 1985, he published The Transforming Principle, a detailed account of the Avery laboratory's work and its scientific context. McCarty received numerous honors, including the Eli Lilly Award in Microbiology and Immunology in 1946, the Wolf Prize in Medicine in 1990 (shared with others for DNA research), and the 1994 Albert Lasker Award for Special Achievement in Medical Science, recognizing his enduring impact on genetics and immunology.[3][4]McCarty married twice—first to Anita Davies in 1933 (divorced), with whom he had two children, and later to Marjorie Fried in 1966, adding two stepchildren—and maintained a modest personal life centered on family and science until his death from congestive heart failure in New York City at age 93. As the last surviving member of the Avery team, his contributions bridged early 20th-century bacteriology with the DNA era, influencing fields from antibiotics development to genomic medicine.[5]
Early Life and Education
Family Background
Maclyn McCarty was born on June 9, 1911, in South Bend, Indiana, as the second of four sons to Earl H. McCarty and Hazel B. Beagle McCarty. His father served as a branch manager for the Studebaker Corporation in the automotive industry, a role that involved overseeing operations during a period of significant industrial growth, while his mother was a homemaker known for her profound love of books and literature. His siblings included an older brother, Von, and two younger brothers, Bruce and Stuart.The McCarty family embodied the close-knit, supportive dynamics typical of early 20th-century Midwestern households, with a modest middle-class status shaped by steady but mobile employment in manufacturing.[6] They upheld values of education and self-reliance, as both parents were well-read and actively encouraged intellectual curiosity among their children.[6] McCarty's mother, in particular, fostered a lifelong passion for reading by sharing literature at home, which broadened his exposure to ideas beyond his immediate surroundings.McCarty's childhood unfolded in a working environment influenced by his father's career in the automotive sector, involving frequent relocations that exposed him to diverse communities across the Midwest and beyond. By age 12, he had attended five schools in three cities, beginning with a one-room schoolhouse in Portland, Oregon, in 1917; these experiences built resilience and adaptability in an era of economic transition for American families. The family's eventual settlement in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in 1922, after his father joined Nash Motors—except for one year of junior high school at the Culver Military Academy in Indiana—provided stability during his later school years, where he graduated from high school.[7] This upbringing, marked by parental encouragement of learning, laid the groundwork for his emerging interest in science during his early teens.[7]
Academic Training
McCarty graduated from Kenosha High School in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in 1929, where he developed a strong interest in the sciences through reading influential books such as Microbe Hunters by Paul de Kruif, which sparked his aspiration for a career in medical research.[2][7][8]He enrolled at Stanford University in 1929, initially pursuing premed training, and by his second year decided to major in biochemistry.[7][9] In his senior year, McCarty gained initial laboratory experience through an organic chemistry project under Professor James Murray Luck, investigating liver hypertrophy in rats and concluding that it resulted from cellular enlargement rather than protein storage.[7] He earned a B.S. degree in 1933, with coursework emphasizing biochemistry that laid the foundation for his later research inclinations.[9][10]In 1933, McCarty enrolled at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, attracted by its reputation for investigative medicine, and completed his M.D. degree in 1937.[7][1] During his first year, he conducted research rotations in biochemistry, working with Dr. Leslie Hellerman on the purification of heparin from beef liver, which exempted him from routine laboratory exercises and honed his skills in biochemical assays.[7] By 1935, following Gerhard Domagk's discovery of the sulfonamide drug Prontosil, McCarty's interests shifted toward infectious diseases and pediatrics, areas that would influence his emerging expertise in microbial studies.[7]From 1937 to 1940, McCarty served as a pediatric intern at Johns Hopkins Hospital's Harriet Lane Home for Invalid Children, focusing on the clinical management of infectious diseases such as pneumococcal pneumonia while engaging in supporting laboratory work, including pneumococcal serotyping.[7][3] This period solidified his preference for research over clinical practice, as the integration of bedside care with experimental analysis on pathogens like pneumococci directed his career trajectory.[7][10] During his internship, McCarty co-authored his first publication in 1939 with Horace Hodes, analyzing the effects of sulfapyridine on pneumococcal infections in 71 pediatric cases, which demonstrated his early proficiency in evaluating antimicrobial therapies through biochemical and microbiological lenses.[7]
Scientific Career
Early Work at Rockefeller
Maclyn McCarty arrived at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research in September 1941, following a year of postdoctoral work at New York University with William S. Tillett on streptococcal infections and sulfonamide therapies.[11] Initially serving as a resident physician, he quickly transitioned to full-time research under the mentorship of Oswald T. Avery in the laboratory focused on pneumococcal genetics and immunology.[12] His medical training at Johns Hopkins and biochemical foundation from Stanford enabled rapid adaptation to the institute's advanced experimental environment.[5]In Avery's lab, McCarty began developing biochemical assays to characterize pneumococcal polysaccharides and associated enzymes, essential for dissecting bacterial transformation processes. By mid-1942, he refined assays for the transforming principle (TP)—the heritable agent converting non-virulent rough (R) strains of Streptococcus pneumoniae to virulent smooth (S) forms—employing replicate titrations for more reliable quantification of activity.[7] He also advanced purification techniques, using enzyme treatments from S III pneumococci to degrade protein contaminants, followed by dialysis and ultracentrifugation to isolate high-molecular-weight TP fractions by April 1943. These methods confirmed the TP's stability and nucleic acid enrichment, laying groundwork for identifying its chemical nature.[13]McCarty's early collaborations with Avery and Colin MacLeod centered on transformation experiments with S. pneumoniae strains, probing how the TP induced stable phenotypic changes. MacLeod, who had joined Avery in 1934, contributed initial strain isolations before departing in 1941 for wartime duties, leaving McCarty to build on their shared protocols amid shifting team dynamics.[7] Wartime conditions in the early 1940s posed significant challenges, including McCarty's 1942 draft into the U.S. Navy Medical Corps, where he continued research in uniform as part of the Naval Medical Research Unit at Rockefeller Hospital; resource scarcities and prioritization of infectious disease studies, given pneumococcus's role in wartime pneumonia outbreaks, further constrained but focused their efforts.[6]Among his initial publications, McCarty co-authored a 1941 paper with Tillett in the Journal of Experimental Medicine demonstrating sulfapyridine's protective effect against benzene-induced leukopenia in rabbits, highlighting early interests in antimicrobial interventions relevant to bacterial infections.[14] Subsequent work from 1941–1943 contributed to foundational studies on deoxyribonuclease (DNase), an enzyme degrading DNA, though major publications on its purification and role in nucleic acid breakdown appeared later in 1946; these efforts honed techniques for analyzing DNA's susceptibility in bacterial systems.[7]
Avery-MacLeod-McCarty Experiment
The Avery-MacLeod-McCarty experiment built on Frederick Griffith's 1928 discovery of bacterial transformation in pneumococci, utilizing heat-killed smooth (virulent, encapsulated) Type III pneumococci to induce heritable changes in live rough (non-virulent, non-encapsulated) Type II strains, converting them into smooth forms capable of causing lethal infections in mice. Researchers Oswald T. Avery, Colin M. MacLeod, and Maclyn McCarty prepared crude extracts from the heat-killed smooth bacteria and tested their ability to promote this transformation when mixed with rough bacteria in vitro. The core question was the chemical identity of the "transforming principle" responsible for the stable, heritable shift in bacterial traits, with prevailing views favoring proteins as the carriers of genetic information.[15]To isolate the active agent, the team employed sequential purification steps on the extracts, including alcohol precipitation and chloroform treatment, yielding a highly polymerized, viscous fraction enriched in deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). They systematically tested the effects of specific enzymes: proteases such as trypsin and chymotrypsin degraded proteins but left transformation intact, with rough strains still converting to smooth; ribonucleases targeting RNA similarly had no inhibitory effect, preserving full transforming activity. In contrast, treatment with crystalline deoxyribonuclease (DNase) completely abolished the transforming capacity, as no smooth colonies emerged in quantitative plating experiments on blood agar, even at concentrations of the extract that normally induced high transformation rates. These enzymatic controls provided rigorous evidence that DNA, rather than protein or RNA, was the essential component, active in exceedingly small amounts.[15]Maclyn McCarty played a pivotal role in refining the DNA purification protocols, drawing on his expertise in large-scale biochemical isolation to remove contaminants and achieve the high-purity fractions necessary for enzymatic testing; he also led the interpretation of the DNase results, demonstrating that the enzyme's destruction of the transforming substance's biological activity confirmed its nucleic acid nature. Their findings culminated in the seminal 1944 paper, "Studies on the Chemical Nature of the Substance Inducing Transformation of Pneumococcal Types," published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine, where they cautiously concluded that the transforming principle "consists principally, if not solely, of a highly polymerized, viscous form of desoxyribonucleic acid."[15][1]The experiment faced significant initial skepticism within the scientific community, largely due to the entrenched dogma that proteins, with their diverse amino acid structures, were the sole candidates for genetic material, while DNA was dismissed as structurally too simple. Critics like Alfred E. Mirsky at the Rockefeller Institute argued that undetected protein contaminants in the DNA preparations were likely responsible for the activity, questioning the completeness of purification and suggesting that nucleic acids merely served as scaffolds for proteins. Despite such dismissals, which delayed widespread acceptance until confirmatory experiments like Hershey-Chase in 1952, the work laid a foundational biochemical basis for understanding heredity and directly influenced James Watson and Francis Crick's 1953 model of DNA structure as the genetic molecule.[16]
Research on Streptococcal Infections
Following Oswald Avery's retirement in 1948, McCarty redirected his research efforts toward group A Streptococcus, emphasizing the bacterium's infection mechanisms and disease prevention strategies.[1] He established a dedicated laboratory at Rockefeller University Hospital in 1946 to study streptococcal biology, drawing on clinical specimens from patients and military outbreaks to explore host-pathogen interactions.McCarty identified the M protein as a primary virulence factor in group A Streptococcus, highlighting its antiphagocytic properties that enable bacterial survival in host tissues and its extensive antigenic variation across serotypes, which poses challenges for immune evasion and vaccine design.[17] His chemical analyses in the late 1940s and early 1950s revealed that M protein expression correlates with opaque colony variants and resistance to phagocytosis, building on earlier serological observations. Methodological expertise from prior DNA purification work was briefly applied to isolate and characterize these surface proteins.[1]In the 1950s and 1960s, McCarty's studies illuminated the causal link between group A streptococcal pharyngitis and rheumatic fever, a post-infectious autoimmune sequela affecting the heart and joints. He led long-term clinical studies at Rockefeller Hospital, including tracking approximately 400 patients, demonstrating that rheumatic fever susceptibility involves exaggerated humoral immune responses to multiple streptococcal antigens, including elevated antistreptolysin O (ASO) and antistreptokinase titers compared to non-rheumatic controls.[7] These findings contributed to the foundation for molecular mimicry hypotheses, where streptococcal components cross-react with host cardiac tissues; specific evidence of shared epitopes between M protein and human tropomyosin was provided in subsequent research.[18]Central to these rheumatic fever investigations were McCarty's purifications of key streptococcal components, including streptolysin O, an oxygen-labile hemolysin that disrupts host cell membranes and elicits strong antibody responses.[1] He also isolated and characterized hyaluronic acid capsule elements, chemically identical to mammalian extracellular matrix glycosaminoglycans, which promote bacterial dissemination by inhibiting phagocytosis and contributing to tissue invasion. These efforts refined understanding of virulence and informed therapeutic targeting of capsule synthesis.McCarty advanced C-reactive protein (CRP) research, building on its 1930s discovery at Rockefeller as an acute-phase reactant.[1] In 1947, he achieved the first crystallization of human CRP from inflammatory exudates, confirming its pentameric structure and calcium-dependent binding to pneumococcal C-polysaccharide, while developing quantitative precipitin assays to track CRP elevations in streptococcal infections and rheumatic fever flares.[19] These refinements established CRP as a sensitive biomarker for monitoring disease activity and response to anti-streptococcal therapy.McCarty's work extended to streptococcal vaccines and antisera, purifying type-specific antigens for immunization trials in the 1950s amid military efforts to curb post-streptococcal complications.[1] His seminal publications elucidated cell wall teichoic acids—polyglycerophosphate polymers linked to D-alanine—as group-specific immunogens, revealing their role in serological cross-reactivity with other Gram-positive bacteria and potential as vaccine adjuvants. For instance, 1959 studies isolated teichoic acids from group A cell walls, demonstrating their antigenic determinants and contributions to host antibody production.McCarty maintained leadership of the streptococcal laboratory through the 1980s, mentoring over 50 postdoctoral fellows and collaborators in bacterial pathogenesis techniques, including cell wall biochemistry and immunological assays. Trainees like John Zabriskie and Lewis Wannamaker advanced his legacy, applying these insights to global rheumatic fever prevention.[1]
Editorial and Leadership Roles
In 1946, McCarty assumed leadership of the Laboratory of Bacteriology and Immunology at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research (now Rockefeller University), succeeding Homer Swift and shifting the focus toward clinical studies of rheumatic fever and the molecular chemistry of streptococcal cell walls.[7] Under his direction, the laboratory expanded to integrate biochemical analyses of bacterial components, laying groundwork for advances in molecular microbiology while maintaining a commitment to disease-oriented research.[1] He later served as Physician-in-Chief of the Rockefeller Hospital from 1963 to 1977, overseeing clinical investigations, and as Vice President of the university for 13 years, contributing to its administrative growth.[7]McCarty's editorial influence was profound through his 41-year tenure as editor of the Journal of Experimental Medicine from 1963 to 2004, during which he upheld rigorous peer review standards and championed publications in immunology and infectious diseases.[7] His expertise in bacterial genetics and immunology guided editorial decisions, ensuring the journal's reputation for excellence and integrity in disseminating high-impact research.[20] He also edited the 1954 volume Streptococcal Infections for Columbia University Press, synthesizing key findings on bacterial pathogenesis.[1]McCarty contributed to national scientific governance as a member of the National Academy of Sciences, elected in 1963, where he chaired the Section of Medical Sciences from 1971 to 1974 and served on the Council from 1973 to 1976, as well as the Report Review Committee from 1974 to 1978.[7] He was active on the Armed Forces Epidemiological Board, including its Commission on Streptococcal and Staphylococcal Diseases from 1948 to 1972, advising on infectious disease control strategies such as early penicillin use to prevent rheumatic fever.[7] These roles extended his impact beyond the laboratory to policy recommendations on bacterial infections.As a mentor, McCarty guided prominent scientists, including Emil C. Gotschlich, who joined his laboratory in 1960 and advanced research on meningococcal polysaccharides under McCarty's oversight, contributing to vaccine development.[21] He also mentored figures like Vincent Fischetti and John Zabriskie, fostering their independence in streptococcal studies while modeling scientific integrity.[1] McCarty established training initiatives at Rockefeller, including oversight of clinical research programs as Physician-in-Chief, and chaired the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Helen Hay Whitney Foundation from 1963 to 1996, supporting postdoctoral fellows in biomedical research.[7]
Recognition and Legacy
Major Awards
Maclyn McCarty received the Eli Lilly and Company Award in Bacteriology and Immunology in 1946 from the Society of American Bacteriologists (now the American Society for Microbiology) for his early research on the pneumococcal transforming principle, which laid the groundwork for identifying DNA as the genetic material.[22] This award recognized his biochemical studies on the specificity of substances inducing transformation in pneumococcal types, highlighting his contributions to understanding bacterial genetics during his time at the Rockefeller Institute.[23]In 1981, McCarty was awarded the Robert Koch Gold Medal by the Robert Koch Foundation for his outstanding lifetime achievements in medical microbiology, particularly his work on bacterial transformations and the role of DNA in genetic inheritance.[24] The honor underscored his pivotal experiments demonstrating how DNA mediates heritable changes in streptococcal infections, advancing knowledge of microbial genetics and its implications for infectious diseases.[25]McCarty received the Wolf Prize in Medicine in 1990, awarded by the Wolf Foundation, for his demonstration that DNA is the substance responsible for the transformation of pneumococcus, establishing the chemical basis of genetic information.[26] This prestigious prize, often seen as a precursor to the Nobel, highlighted the oversight in not awarding him the Nobel Prize despite his foundational role in molecular biology, emphasizing the transformative impact of his 1944 collaboration with Oswald Avery and Colin MacLeod on modern genetics.[4]In 1988, McCarty was awarded the Jessie Stevenson Kovalenko Medal by the National Academy of Sciences for his discovery and characterization, with Avery and MacLeod, that deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is the chemical substance of biological specificity, the gene.[27]In 1989, McCarty received the George M. Kober Medal from the Association of American Physicians in recognition of his distinguished contributions to medicine, particularly in bacterial genetics and immunology.Finally, in 1994, McCarty received the Albert Lasker Award for Special Achievement in Medical Science from the Lasker Foundation, honoring his lifelong dedication to research on DNA as the carrier of genetic information and his broader contributions to immunology and bacterial infections.[28] The award praised his seminal 1944 experiments proving DNA's genetic role through enzyme-based purification and transformation assays, which paved the way for the DNA double helix model and contemporary biomedical science, while noting the absence of a Nobel recognition for this breakthrough.[29]
Scientific Influence
McCarty's collaboration with Oswald Avery and Colin MacLeod in the 1944 experiment demonstrated that DNA, rather than proteins, serves as the genetic material in bacteria, fundamentally shifting scientific paradigms from protein-centric views to recognizing nucleic acids as the basis of heredity.[11] This breakthrough provided critical groundwork for subsequent research, including the 1952 Hershey-Chase experiment, which confirmed DNA's role in viral inheritance and propelled the molecular biology revolution by enabling advancements in gene cloning, sequencing, and genetic engineering.[30][11]In microbiology, McCarty's post-1940s research on group A streptococci elucidated immune responses and molecular mechanisms underlying infections, leading to improved diagnostics such as elevated antibody titers to streptococcal antigens in rheumatic fever patients.[20] These insights facilitated targeted antibiotic prophylaxis and vaccine development, contributing to a marked decline in rheumatic fever incidence worldwide after the 1960s through enhanced prevention strategies in high-risk populations.[31] His identification of C-reactive protein as an inflammation marker further supported clinical monitoring of streptococcal complications.[11]As a mentor at Rockefeller University, where he served as physician-in-chief for 14 years, McCarty trained numerous researchers in bacterial genetics and immunology, fostering a legacy of rigorous experimental approaches that influenced generations of scientists in infectious disease studies.[11] His extensive publications, exceeding 200 papers and including influential 1970s reviews on bacterial transformation, continue to be cited for their foundational explanations of DNA-mediated genetic change.[1]The omission of McCarty, Avery, and MacLeod from Nobel recognition has been widely critiqued as an oversight, attributed to the discovery's timing before the 1953 elucidation of DNA's double-helix structure and Avery's death in 1955, which precluded posthumous awards while diminishing the trio's collective visibility.[32] In the 21st century, reevaluations in scientific literature have elevated their contributions, crediting the experiment as a cornerstone of modern genetics alongside Watson and Crick's work.[33]McCarty also advanced ethical standards in science through his over 40-year editorship of the Journal of Experimental Medicine, emphasizing transparency, peer review integrity, and open dissemination of findings, principles that resonate with contemporary debates on data sharing in genomics research.[11]
Personal Life and Death
Family and Relationships
Maclyn McCarty's first marriage was to Anita Alleyne Davies in 1933, with whom he had four children before their divorce in the mid-1960s.[9][7] The couple's children included son Maclyn McCarty Jr. (born 1935, died 2002), son Richard E. McCarty, daughter Dale McCarty DiNunzio (born circa 1947), and son Colin Avery McCarty (born 1958).[9][34][35] These children pursued diverse paths, with Richard becoming a professor of biology at Johns Hopkins University, Dale entering professional life in Missouri, and Colin working in New York before his death in 2008.[36]In 1966, McCarty married Marjorie Fried, a former technician and secretary in his Rockefeller University laboratory whom he had met professionally in 1957; this partnership provided mutual support amid his demanding research commitments.[37][7][9]Marjorie, who brought her own son Paul Steiner from a previous marriage into the family, played a key role in maintaining home life, including hosting colleagues and traveling together to places like London and Paris, which offered respite from scientific pressures. Paul Steiner died in 2025.[9][7][38] Their relationship fostered a stable environment that complemented McCarty's career-long dedication to microbiology.[11]McCarty maintained strong ties to his extended family, including his three brothers—Von, Bruce, and Stuart—with whom he held annual week-long reunions starting in his youth and continuing throughout his life, even after their mother's death in 1973; these gatherings at rented houses on the New Jersey shore provided emotional grounding during periods of intense professional focus at Rockefeller.[7] His childhood family, led by father Earl H. McCarty (a automotive executive) and mother Hazel B. Beagle (an avid reader), instilled values of curiosity and support that influenced his path into medicine and research.[7][1] These familial bonds, spanning siblings, in-laws, and later grandchildren (eight at the time of his death), offered consistent stability amid the relocations and long hours tied to his scientific endeavors.[9][7]
Interests and Retirement
Throughout his life, Maclyn McCarty maintained a deep passion for literature, particularly 19th-century novels by authors such as Charles Dickens, which he shared with close friends and family members. He also harbored a strong appreciation for theater, fine arts, and calligraphy, often indulging in these pursuits as a counterbalance to his scientific endeavors. McCarty enjoyed classical symphonic music and had a penchant for clever puns, social dinners featuring Tanqueraygin and tonic, and chocolate desserts, reflecting a cultured and convivial side to his personality.[7]McCarty's travel hobbies centered on annual European excursions with his second wife, Marjorie Fried, blending leisure with occasional professional obligations such as scientific conferences. These trips, spanning from the late 1960s through the 1990s, typically included visits to London and Paris during the Christmas and New Year holidays, where they attended theater performances and explored the French countryside, combining sightseeing with cultural enrichment. He also cherished annual gatherings with his three brothers—Von, Bruce, and Stuart—in various American cities like Charleston, Savannah, and Boston, a tradition that began during their mother's lifetime and continued post-retirement to foster family bonds.[7]McCarty retired from the Rockefeller University in 1981 at the age of 70, transitioning to emeritus status while remaining active in advisory capacities for scientific institutions. In retirement, he authored The Transforming Principle: Discovering that Genes Are Made of DNA in 1985, a book aimed at general readers that revisited the pivotal 1944 experiment he co-led. He continued to serve on key boards, including chairing the scientific advisory committee of the Helen Hay Whitney Foundation from 1963 to 1996 and serving on the board of the Public Health Research Institute of New York City for 40 years, including as chairman from 1985 to 1992, contributing his expertise to support microbiology and immunology research initiatives.[7][39][40]
Death and Memorials
Maclyn McCarty died on January 2, 2005, at the age of 93 in New York City from congestive heart failure after a brief hospitalization.[10][41][42]Following his death, obituaries appeared in prominent publications, including Nature and The New York Times in January 2005, which highlighted his pivotal role in demonstrating that DNA is the molecule of genetic inheritance through the Avery-MacLeod-McCarty experiment.[10][9] The Rockefeller University, where McCarty had worked for over six decades, issued an official statement mourning his passing and describing him as responsible for one of the pivotal discoveries of 20th-century biology.[43]In the years after his death, McCarty's contributions continued to be honored through scholarly commemorations. The National Academy of Sciences published a detailed biographical memoir in 2009, chronicling his career and scientific impact.[44] Additionally, his family's efforts have been instrumental in preserving McCarty's legacy. His widow, Marjorie McCarty, contributed materials and participated in oral history interviews donated to The Rockefeller University's archives, providing insights into his life and work, including access to notes from the 1944 experiment.[37] In the 2020s, these resources were digitized through Rockefeller's Digital Commons, enhancing public and scholarly access to his papers and related historical documents.[3]