Cùng với các đồng nghiệp Oswald Avery và Maclyn McCarty, MacLeod tiến hành các thí nghiệm về chuyển đổi vi khuẩn trong đó chỉ ra rằng DNA là tác nhân tích cực trong việc chuyển đổi di truyền của tế bào vi khuẩn. Nghiên cứu trước đây của ông tập trung vào những nguyên nhân của viêm phổi | PM Page 1 WORLD of o 3 O U3 o ui PM Page 3 WORLD of Brigham Narins Editor Volume 2 M-Z General Index GALE THOMSON GALE Detroit New York San Diego San Francisco Cleveland New Haven Conn. Waterville Maine London Munich womi_M 5 7 03 7 52 AM Page 359 M MacLeod Colin Munro 1909-1972 Canadian-born American microbiologist Colin Munro MacLeod is recognized as one of the founders of molecular biology for his research concerning the role of deoxyribonucleic acid DNA in bacteria. Along with his colleagues Oswald Avery and Maclyn McCarty MacLeod conducted experiments on bacterial transformation which indicated that DNA was the active agent in the genetic transformation of bacterial cells. His earlier research focused on the causes of pneumonia and the development of serums to treat it. MacLeod later became chairman of the department of microbiology at New York University he also worked with a number of government agencies and served as White House science advisor to President John F. Kennedy. MacLeod the fourth of eight children was born in Port Hastings in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. He was the son of John Charles MacLeod a Scottish Presbyterian minister and Lillian Munro MacLeod a schoolteacher. During his childhood MacLeod moved with his family first to Saskatchewan and then to Quebec. A bright youth he skipped several grades in elementary school and graduated from St. Francis College a secondary school in Richmond Quebec at the age of fifteen. MacLeod was granted a scholarship to McGill University in Montreal but was required to wait a year for admission because of his age during that time he taught elementary school. After two years of undergraduate work in McGill s premedical program during which he became managing editor of the student newspaper and a member of the varsity ice hockey team MacLeod entered the McGill University Medical School receiving his medical degree in 1932. Following a two-year internship at the Montreal General .
