Martha Cowles Chase (November 30, 1927 – August 8, 2003), also known as Martha C. Epstein, was an American

geneticist A geneticist is a biologist or physician who studies genetics, the science of genes, heredity, and variation of organisms. A geneticist can be employed as a scientist or a lecturer. Geneticists may perform general research on genetic processes ...

who in 1952, with Alfred Hershey, experimentally helped to confirm that DNA rather than

protein Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including catalysing metabolic reactions, DNA replication, res ...

is the genetic material of life.

Early life and college education

Chase was born in 1927 in Cleveland, Ohio. Her father was a Western Reserve University Science Instructor and she grew up with her family in

Cleveland Heights, Ohio Cleveland Heights is a city in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States, and one of Cleveland's historical streetcar suburbs. The city's population was 45,312 at the 2020 census. As of the 2010 census, Cleveland Heights was ranked the 8th largest ...

. After graduating from

Cleveland Heights High School Cleveland Heights High School (commonly known as Heights, Heights High or Heights High School) is the senior high school of the Cleveland Heights-University Heights City School District, located in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, United States. Histo ...

, she received a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

from the

College of Wooster The College of Wooster is a private liberal arts college in Wooster, Ohio. Founded in 1866 by the Presbyterian Church as the University of Wooster, it has been officially non-sectarian since 1969 when ownership ties with the Presbyterian Church ...

in 1950, then worked as a research assistant before returning to school in 1959 and receiving a PhD in Microbiology from the

University of Southern California , mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it" , religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Methodist , established = , accreditation = WSCUC , type = Private research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $8.1 ...

in 1964.

Research and later life

In 1950, Chase began working as a research assistant at

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) is a private, non-profit institution with research programs focusing on cancer, neuroscience, plant biology, genomics, and quantitative biology. It is one of 68 institutions supported by the Cancer Centers ...

in the laboratory of bacteriologist and geneticist Alfred Hershey. In 1952, she and Hershey performed the Hershey–Chase experiment, which helped to confirm that genetic information is held and transmitted by DNA, not by protein. The experiment involved radioactively labeling either protein or nucleic acid of the bacteriophage T2 (a

virus A virus is a submicroscopic infectious agent that replicates only inside the living cells of an organism. Viruses infect all life forms, from animals and plants to microorganisms, including bacteria and archaea. Since Dmitri Ivanovsk ...

that infects

bacteria Bacteria (; singular: bacterium) are ubiquitous, mostly free-living organisms often consisting of one Cell (biology), biological cell. They constitute a large domain (biology), domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometr ...

) and seeing which component entered E coli upon infection. They found that nucleic acids but not protein were transferred, helping resolve controversy over the composition of hereditary information. Hershey won the

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded yearly by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute for outstanding discoveries in physiology or medicine. The Nobel Prize is not a single prize, but five separate prizes that, accord ...

for the discovery in 1969, but Chase was not included. Chase left Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in 1953 and worked with Gus Doermann at

Oak Ridge National Laboratory Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is a U.S. multiprogram science and technology national laboratory sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and administered, managed, and operated by UT–Battelle as a federally funded research an ...

in Tennessee, and later at the

University of Rochester The University of Rochester (U of R, UR, or U of Rochester) is a private university, private research university in Rochester, New York. The university grants Undergraduate education, undergraduate and graduate degrees, including Doctorate, do ...

. Throughout the 1950s, she returned yearly to Cold Spring Harbor to take part in meetings of the Phage Group of biologists. In 1959, she began doctoral studies at

in the laboratory of Giuseppe Bertani. Bertani moved to Sweden and Chase finished her thesis with Margaret Lieb in 1964. While in California, Chase met and married fellow scientist Richard Epstein in the late 1950s and changed her name to Martha C. Epstein. The marriage was brief and they divorced shortly after with no children. A series of personal setbacks through the 1960s ended her career in science. She moved back to Ohio to live with family and spent the last decades of her life suffering from a form of

dementia Dementia is a disorder which manifests as a set of related symptoms, which usually surfaces when the brain is damaged by injury or disease. The symptoms involve progressive impairments in memory, thinking, and behavior, which negatively affe ...

that robbed her of short-term memory. She died of

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severi ...

on August 8, 2003, at the age of 75.

Namesakes

The family ''Chaseviridae'', a group of bacteriophages in order ''

Caudovirales ''Caudovirales'' is an order of viruses known as the tailed bacteriophages (''cauda'' is Latin for "tail"). Under the Baltimore classification scheme, the ''Caudovirales'' are group I viruses as they have double stranded DNA (dsDNA) genomes ...

'', was named in honor of Martha Chase.Evelien M. Adriaenssens, Mart Krupovic ''et al.''
Taxonomy of prokaryotic viruses: 2018-2019 update from the ICTV Bacterial and Archaeal Viruses Subcommittee
In: Archives of Virology 165. 11 March 2020. Pp 1253–1260. doi:10.1007/s00705-020-04577-8
PDF
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Key paper

at Oregon State University website

References

External links

* ttps://www.dnalc.org/view/16407-Gallery-18-Martha-Epstein-Chase.html Gallery Martha Epstein Chase, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Gallery 18: Alfred Hershey and Martha Chase, 1953, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
* Thesis paper
“Reactivation of Phage P2 Damaged by Ultraviolet Light,” 1964
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chase, Martha 1927 births 2003 deaths People from Shaker Heights, Ohio People from Cleveland Heights, Ohio American women biochemists American geneticists American women geneticists 20th-century American women scientists 20th-century American chemists College of Wooster alumni University of Southern California alumni 21st-century American women People with dementia Deaths from pneumonia in Ohio