Born: 30 November 1927, United States
Died: 8 August 2003
Country most active: United States
Also known as: Martha C. Epstein
The following is excerpted from Infinite Women creator Allison Tyra’s book Uncredited: Women’s Overlooked, Misattributed, and Stolen Work.
Any student of genetics is aware of the Hershey-Chase experiment, which confirmed that DNA carries genetic information. Conducted by Martha Chase and Alfred Hershey, the work earned the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1969—not for Chase, but for Hershey, who shared it with Max Delbrück and Salvador Luria, for their “discoveries concerning the genetic structure of viruses.”
When Chase and Hershey were conducting their experiments in the 1950s, the function of DNA was still unclear. It was thought that DNA was too inert to carry genetic information, which was believed to be the job of protein. The experiments demonstrated that when bacteriophages, which are made up of DNA and protein, infect bacteria, their DNA enters the host bacterial cell, but most of their protein does not.
While some critics questioned Chase’s contributions to the work and will point out that she was a research assistant and not a lead investigator, the fact that the experiment bears her name as well as Hershey’s certainly indicates a partnership of equal value. She was also listed as a co-author on the results paper, which was uncommon for research assistants unless they contributed substantially. Yet, Hershey didn’t even acknowledge her contributions in his Nobel acceptance speech.