Leslie Barnett
| Leslie Barnett | |
|---|---|
| Born |
12 October 1920 London |
| Died | 10 February 2002 (aged 81) |
| Nationality | United Kingdom |
| Occupation | Biologist |
| Known for | Frameshift mutations |
Leslie Barnett (born 12 October 1920 in London, United Kingdom as Margaret Leslie Collard – died 10 February 2002) was a British biologist who worked with Francis Crick, Sydney Brenner, and Richard J. Watts-Tobin to genetically demonstrate the triplet nature of the code of protein translation through the Crick, Brenner, Barnett, Watts-Tobin et al. experiment of 1961, which discovered frameshift mutations; this insight provided early elucidation of the nature of the genetic code.
In her professional life, Barnett was a microbiologist who joined the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, where she worked as an assistant mainly with Crick and later Brenner, with whom she remained for many years until he left and she retired. During this long period Leslie Barnett was involved in a number of the important advances made in molecular biology and genetics; she witnessed the many technological and scientific advances made during the last century, some very important ones which she herself had contributed to.
At the beginning of the war Leslie had started training in the Institute of Agriculture in Essex but in 1939 took a job in Felixstowe as an apprentice at a local dairy, milk testing, and later with United Dairies in London. After evacuation to Banbury and several further jobs she returned to London where she met and married James in 1945. He insisted that she took up the offer of a place at Reading University and she remembered these as some of the happiest days of her life, studying for her BSc in dairying. Leslie continued to be fond of James despite their divorce when the children were quite young. She was the mother of Penny and Marion Barnett.
Barnett came to work as a technician in the MRC Unit shortly before the move from the Cavendish Laboratory to "The Hut" in Cambridge. Her role was to help with the computing for the crystallographers. On the arrival of Sydney Brenner, however, help was needed to set up the phage research and then to prepare for the arrival of Seymour Benzer and other American visitors that autumn. Leslie worked with Vernon Ingram in determining the GLU to VAL amino acid change in the beta chain of Hb responsible for the sickle cell phenotype. This was the first molecular disease characterized. Barnett showed her versatility when she transferred to Brenner's programme and made a major contribution to the laboratory work, becoming a co-author of their two major papers on the results. In 1966 she was appointed Senior Tutor at the new graduate college, Clare Hall, Cambridge. She proved very popular in this work.
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