 He trained with Sydney Brenner, Arthur Pardee, and Francois Jacob at the Institut Pasteur in France before arriving at Harvard University.Beckwith led the research group that in 1969 isolated the first gene from a bacterial chromosome.Some of the researchers worked in the Beckwith laboratory at the Harvard Medical School and consisted of several now well-known scientists and doctors including James A. Shapiro and Lawrence Eron, MD.