| Authorised form of name | Murray; Noreen Elizabeth (1935 - 2011); geneticist |
| Dates | 1935 - 2011 |
| Nationality | British |
| Place of birth | Latrigg, Whalley Road, Read, near Burnley, Lancashire, England |
| Date of birth | 26 February 1935 |
| Place of death | Fairmile Marie Curie Centre, Edinburgh, Scotland |
| Date of death | 12 May 2011 |
| DatesAndPlaces | Place of marriage: Bolton-le-Sands, Lancaster, Lancashire, England |
| Occupation | geneticist |
| Research field | Genetics |
| Molecular genetics |
| Activity | Education:
Bolton-le-Sands (1940-45); Lancaster Girls' Grammar School (1945-53); King's College, London; University of Birmingham PhD (1959)
Career:
Postdoctoral position at Stanford University, California, investigating Neurospora in David Perkins's laboratory (1959); studied genetics of bacteriophage; returned to the UK (1964); began working with Harold Whitehouse, Botany School, Cambridge (1964); moved to the University of Edinburgh, where Noreen took up a position in Bill Hayes's Medical Research Council Unit of Molecular Genetics (1968); produced produced a series of increasingly sophisticated lambda cloning vectors and bacterial strains in which to grow them (1970-1980); promoted to professor of Molecular Genetics, Edinburgh University (1988); becoming Emeritus professor upon retirement (2001); diagnosed with motor neurone disease (2010) but continued working whilst at the Marei Curie Hospice, Edinburgh, despite being unable to speak (2011).
Memberships:
European Molecular Biology Organisation 1981
Royal Society of Edinburgh 1989
Awards/Medals:
AstraZeneca award of the Biochemical Society
Nexxus award (jointly with her husband)
Royal Medal of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
Honours:
CBE 2002 |
| Membership category | Fellow |
| Date of election | 18/03/1982 |
| Age at election | 47 |
| RSActivity | Royal Society roles:
Council: 1992-1993
Medals and prizes:
Gabor Medal 1989 |
| Relationships | Parents: John Parker, headmaster, and Lilian Grace, née Sutcliffe.
Spouse: (m. 6 September 1958) Kenneth Murray FRS 1979 |
| PublishedWorks | RCN R76330
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RCN R76328 |
| OtherInfo | Distinguished for her analyses of recombination between allelic genes in Neurospora crassa, which revealed a discontinuous and polarised distribution of recombination events and were important in the development of current theories of genetic recombination. This stimulated her interest in site-specific endonucleases and led to an outstanding genetic analysis of those sites on the Escherichia coli phage lambda chromosome which are attacked by "restriction" endonucleases to yield DNA fragments with "cohesive" ends, capable of bonding to DNA fragments from any source cut by the same enzyme. By further complex genetic manipulations she developed (with the biochemical collaboration of K.Murray) phage lambda chromosomes highly suited to the in vitro incorporation of heterologous DNA fragments, to form hybrid chromosomes which, on introduction into their bacterial host, are easily recognised and permit detailed genetic analysis and amplification of the products of alien genes. She has used these hybrid phages to isolate interesting genes from E.coli, phage T4 and other organisms. Her work is widely recognised as an outstanding contribution to the field of genetic engineering.
Declined to use the title Lady Murray following her husband being Knighted in 1993. |
| Royal Society Obituary or Memoir | Click to view (may be contained within a meeting notice, presidential address or list of death notices) |
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| Source | Biographical Memoirs Vol. 60, December 2014, pp 349 - 374 |
| Code | NA4187 |