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What term was originally used for DNA?
DNA, RNA, and Chromosomes
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DNA was originally called nuclein because it was first isolated in 1869 from the nuclei of cells. In the 1860s Johann Frederick Miescher (1844–1895), a Swiss biochemist working in Germany at the University of Tubingen lab of Felix Hoppe-Seyler (1825–1895), was given the task of researching the composition of white blood cells. He found a good source of white blood cells from the used bandages that he obtained at a nearby hospital. He washed off the pus and isolated a new molecule from the cell nucleus; white blood cells have very large nuclei. He called the substance nuclein.