Who was the first researcher to identify DNA as a distinct molecule?

Friedrich Miescher is a man who lived from August 13, 1844 until August 26, 1895. He was a Swiss physician and biologist. And, he was the first researcher to isolate and identify nucleic acid (DNA as a distinct molecule).

Initially, Miescher isolated various phosphate rich chemicals, which he called nuclein (now nucleic acids), from the nuclei of white blood cells in 1869 in Felix Hoppe-Seyler's laboratory at the University of Tübingen, Germany. This paved the way for the identification of DNA as the carrier of inheritance (the building blocks of life).

The significance of the discovery, first published in 1871, was not at first apparent, and it was Albrecht Kossel who made the initial inquiries into the chemical structure of nuclein. Later, Friedrich Miescher raised the idea that the nucleic acids could be directly involved in heredity.

Miescher continued his work until 1895 when died of tuberculosis at the age of 51.