Barbara McClintock

Barbara McClintock was an American scientist who won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1983 for her revolutionary discovery of ‘jumping genes,’ which are mobile genetic elements. She was the first woman to win an unshared Nobel in this field. She specialised in genetics, cytology, and zoology, earning a Ph.D from Cornell University in 1927. Yet, when she returned to her alma mater, the university refused to hire a female professor, and she found her home in the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. The entirety of her research career was spent on the chromosomal analysis of maize, leading to many fundamental genetic ideas. Her microscope and special staining technique allowed her to examine, identify, and describe individual chromosomes.

Through careful observation, McClintock came across an incredible phenomenon: certain sections of the maize chromosome detached and moved to other chromosomes as part of a regulation mechanism, which came to be known as ‘transposition.’ By tracing pigmentation changes and using a microscope to observe the large chromosomes, she was able to isolate two genes that she called ‘controlling elements,’ which were responsible for the pigmentation. The movement of these genes to different chromosomal sites affected the behaviour of neighbouring genes.

Through careful observation, McClintock came across an incredible phenomenon: certain sections of the maize chromosome detached and moved to other chromosomes as part of a regulation mechanism, which came to be known as ‘transposition.’ By tracing pigmentation changes and using a microscope to observe the large chromosomes, she was able to isolate two genes that she called ‘controlling elements,’ which were responsible for the pigmentation. The movement of these genes to different chromosomal sites affected the behaviour of neighbouring genes.

McClintock’s work was decades ahead of her time. This radical discovery was treated with a lot of scepticism and hostility by her peers. Disheartened by this, she stopped publishing her results or giving lectures, but continued to quietly pursue research. Only after several years were similar mechanisms discovered in other organisms and her research validated. She was immediately inundated with recognition and awards, a fitting retribution for the humiliation she had endured.