DNA was first discovered in 1869 by the Swiss physician Friedrich Miescher. He isolated a substance from the nuclei of white blood cells, which he called "nuclein" (now known as DNA). This discovery marked the identification of DNA as a distinct molecule, though its role in genetics was not understood until much later.
The structure and genetic function of DNA were discovered and elucidated over subsequent decades, culminating in the identification of the double helix structure by James Watson and Francis Crick in 1953.
