Martha Chase

(1927-2003)

Born: Cleveland Heights, U.S.A

After earning her degree from the College of Wooster, Martha Chase joined Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in 1950. There, alongside Alfred Hershey, she conducted the "blender experiment," which demonstrated that DNA, not proteins, is the genetic material of life—a topic previously contested. Although Hershey received the Nobel Prize in 1969 for this discovery, Chase was not acknowledged in the award. Chase's scientific career was unfortunately short-lived; she left the field in the late 1960s due to personal setbacks, including a divorce and job loss. In her later years, Chase suffered from dementia, losing her short-term memory. Her sister stated, “She especially loved going out in the desert after a rain when the flowers were blooming."

DNA is the Genetic Material, 1952

The Hershey-Chase experiment, conducted by Martha Chase and Alfred Hershey, involved introducing bacteriophages (viruses that infect bacteria) labeled with radioactive isotopes into a bacterial culture. After the viruses injected their genetic material into the bacteria, Hershey and Chase found that it was the radioactive DNA—not the protein—that had entered the bacteria. This crucial finding established DNA as the primary carrier of genetic information. Interestingly, this confirmed a hypothesis first proposed by Oswald Avery in 1944, who demonstrated that DNA could transform cell properties. However, the scientific community was skeptical, favoring proteins as the genetic material due to their greater complexity and variability. Despite this, Martha Chase's contributions remain a fundamental part of molecular biology's history.

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