| Citation | In the mid-1970s Professor Beggs made a key contribution to the development of yeast molecular genetics in adapting the yeast two-micron plasmid as a cloning vector and she was one of the first to achieve transformation of yeast with DNA. Her cloning vector was the first shuttle vector for transfer of genes between Escherichia coli and eukaryotes (yeast), a concept later applied to other eukaryotic cells. These innovations were fundamental to the development of recombinant DNA technology in eukaryotic systems.
SInce 1978 Professor Beggs has exploited yeast genetics to analyse the splicing of eukaryotic messenger RNA. By the combined use of genetics and definitive molecular approaches she has identified key proteins and RNA-protein interactions that regulate this highly complex sequence of events involved in the excision of intervening sequences from precursor mRNAs. |