Martha Chase

Martha Cowles Chase
Born November 30, 1927
Cleveland Heights, Ohio, USA
Died August 8, 2003 (aged 75)
Lorain, Ohio, USA
Residence United States
Citizenship United States
Nationality American
Fields Genetics
Alma mater College of Wooster, University of Southern California

Martha Cowles Chase (November 30, 1927 – August 8, 2003), also known as Martha C. Epstein,[1] was an American geneticist known for being a member of the 1952 team (see Alfred Hershey) that experimentally showed that DNA rather than protein is the genetic material of life. She was greatly respected as a geneticist.

Early life and college education

Chase was born in 1927 in Cleveland, Ohio. In 1950 she received her bachelor's degree from the College of Wooster and in 1964 her PhD from the University of Southern California.[2]

Research and later life

In 1952 Chase was a young laboratory assistant to American bacteriophage expert Alfred Hershey at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory from the Carnegie Institution of Washington. This was where the well-known Hershey–Chase experiment was performed. The experiment showed that it was DNA, and not protein, that was the genetic material through which traits were inherited.

She met and married fellow scientist Richard Epstein in California in the late 1950s. The marriage was brief and they divorced shortly after.[1] A series of personal setbacks through the 1960s ended Chase's career in science.[1] She spent decades suffering from a form of dementia that robbed her of short-term memory. She died of pneumonia on August 8, 2003, at the age of 75.[1]

Key paper

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Dawson, Milly (2003-08-20). "Martha Chase dies". The Scientist. Retrieved 2010-09-25.
  2. ↑ Lavietes, Stuart. "Martha Chase, 75, a Researcher Who Aided in DNA Experiment". The New York Times.

External links