Martha Chase
| Martha Cowls 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 |
| Known for | Hershey-Chase Experiment |
Martha Cowles Chase (November 30, 1927 – August 8, 2003), also known as Martha C. Epstein, was an American geneticist known for having in 1952, with Alfred Hershey, experimentally helped to confirm that DNA rather than protein is the genetic material of life. She was greatly respected as a geneticist.
Chase was born in 1927 in Cleveland, Ohio. She had only one sister, Ruth Chase. In 1950 she received her bachelor's degree from the College of Wooster and in 1964 her PhD from the University of Southern California.
In 1952 Chase met the American bacteriophage expert Alfred Hershey at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratoryfrom the Carnegie Institution of Washington. This was where the well-known Hershey–Chase experiment was performed. The experiment helped to confirm that it was DNA, and not protein, that was the genetic material through which traits were inherited. They proved this by testing that the DNA, not the protein, of the bacteriophage T2 (a virus that infects bacteria) entered E coli upon infection. This result was contrary to prevailing scientific opinion at the time.
In 1953 Chase moved to a post at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, and she later also worked at the University of Rochester. During the 1950s she returned to Cold Spring Harbor to take part in meetings of the Phage Group of biologists.
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