Born on June 16, 1902(1902-06-16)
Hartford, Connecticut, USA
Died on September 2, 1992 (aged 90)
Huntington, New York, USANationality: United States
Barbara McClintock was born in Hartford, Connecticut, the third of four children of physician Thomas Henry McClintock and Sara Handy McClintock. She was independent from a very young age, a trait McClintock described as her "capacity to be alone". From about the age of three until the time she started school, McClintock lived with an aunt and uncle in Massachusetts in order to reduce the financial burden on her parents while her father established his medical practice. The McClintocks moved to semi-rural Brooklyn, New York in 1908. She was described as a solitary and independent child, and a tomboy. She was close to her father, but had a difficult relationship with her mother.
McClintock completed her secondary education at Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn.She discovered science at high school, and wanted to attend Cornell University to continue her studies. Her mother resisted the idea of higher education for her daughters, believing it would make them unmarriageable. The family also had financial problems. Barbara was almost prevented from starting college, but her father intervened, and she entered Cornell in 1919.
McClintock began her studies at Cornell's College of Agriculture in 1919. She studied botany, receiving a BSc in 1923. Her interest in genetics had been sparked when she took her first course in that field in 1921. The course was based on a similar one offered at Harvard University, and was taught by C. B. Hutchison, a plant breeder and geneticist. Barbara served as a graduate assistant in the Department of Botany from 1924 to 1927
In 1927, she was appointed as a botany instructor. In 1930, Barbara was the first person to describe the cross-shaped interaction of homologous chromosomes during meiosis. In 1931, Barbara working with a graduate student Harriet Creighton proved the link between chromosomal crossover during meiosis and the recombination of genetic traits. She published the first genetic map for maize in 1931, showing the order of three genes on maize chromosome 9. In 1936, she accepted an Assistant Professorship in the Department of Botany at the University of Missouri. In 1938, Barbara produced a cytogenetic analysis of the centromere, describing the organization and function of the centromere.
For her groundbreaking work in the genetics of corn, she earned a place among the leaders in genetics. Barbara was elected to the prestigious National Academy of Sciences in 1944. Almost half of the human genomes are composed of transposable elements or jumping DNA. In the 1940s Dr. Barbara first recognized jumping DNA in studies of peculiar inheritance patterns found in the colors of Indian corn. Jumping DNA refers to the idea that some stretches of DNA are unstable and "transposable," meaning they can move around - on and between the chromosomes. This particular theory was confirmed in the 1980s when scientists observed jumping DNA in other genomes. Now scientists believe transposons may be linked to some genetic disorders such as leukemia, hemophilia and breast cancer. They also believe that transposons may have played significant roles in human evolution. In 1983, Barbara McClintock was awarded the Nobel Prize in Genetics for the discovery of genetic transposition. She died in Huntington, New York on September 2, 1992. To this day, her work is relevant despite the fact that much of it was completed over half a century ago, before the advent of the molecular era.
Barbara McClintock was born in Hartford, Connecticut, the third of four children of physician Thomas Henry McClintock and Sara Handy McClintock. She was independent from a very young age, a trait McClintock described as her "capacity to be alone". From about the age of three until the time she started school, McClintock lived with an aunt and uncle in Massachusetts in order to reduce the financial burden on her parents while her father established his medical practice. The McClintocks moved to semi-rural Brooklyn, New York in 1908. She was described as a solitary and independent child, and a tomboy. She was close to her father, but had a difficult relationship with her mother.
McClintock completed her secondary education at Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn.She discovered science at high school, and wanted to attend Cornell University to continue her studies. Her mother resisted the idea of higher education for her daughters, believing it would make them unmarriageable. The family also had financial problems. Barbara was almost prevented from starting college, but her father intervened, and she entered Cornell in 1919.
McClintock began her studies at Cornell's College of Agriculture in 1919. She studied botany, receiving a BSc in 1923. Her interest in genetics had been sparked when she took her first course in that field in 1921. The course was based on a similar one offered at Harvard University, and was taught by C. B. Hutchison, a plant breeder and geneticist. Barbara served as a graduate assistant in the Department of Botany from 1924 to 1927
In 1927, she was appointed as a botany instructor. In 1930, Barbara was the first person to describe the cross-shaped interaction of homologous chromosomes during meiosis. In 1931, Barbara working with a graduate student Harriet Creighton proved the link between chromosomal crossover during meiosis and the recombination of genetic traits. She published the first genetic map for maize in 1931, showing the order of three genes on maize chromosome 9. In 1936, she accepted an Assistant Professorship in the Department of Botany at the University of Missouri. In 1938, Barbara produced a cytogenetic analysis of the centromere, describing the organization and function of the centromere.
For her groundbreaking work in the genetics of corn, she earned a place among the leaders in genetics. Barbara was elected to the prestigious National Academy of Sciences in 1944. Almost half of the human genomes are composed of transposable elements or jumping DNA. In the 1940s Dr. Barbara first recognized jumping DNA in studies of peculiar inheritance patterns found in the colors of Indian corn. Jumping DNA refers to the idea that some stretches of DNA are unstable and "transposable," meaning they can move around - on and between the chromosomes. This particular theory was confirmed in the 1980s when scientists observed jumping DNA in other genomes. Now scientists believe transposons may be linked to some genetic disorders such as leukemia, hemophilia and breast cancer. They also believe that transposons may have played significant roles in human evolution. In 1983, Barbara McClintock was awarded the Nobel Prize in Genetics for the discovery of genetic transposition. She died in Huntington, New York on September 2, 1992. To this day, her work is relevant despite the fact that much of it was completed over half a century ago, before the advent of the molecular era.
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