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Hidden Figures Beyond: The First Black PhD in Chemistry, Marie Maynard Daly

April 3, 2020

How would you feel if you knew your work inspired hundreds, maybe even thousands of rising scientists to pursue the career that was meant for them. If you knew that some young kid would look at your research, your pictures of you working in a lab, and says “ I want to be just like them one day!”, wouldn’t you feel overjoyed, proud, or even grateful that you were able to get this far in your career? Even though there is little recorded history to how Marie Maynard Daly felt, I think these would be her feeling for being one of the most impactful African-American scientists that paved the way for many scientists from behind the scenes. Welcome to the second installment of my series, Hidden Figures Beyond, where I talk about scientists in underrepresented groups that made an important impact on the world of science. Today’s article is one I’ve been excited to write about since I joined this group. Today I’ll be talking about Marie Maynard Daly, the first African-American woman to earn a Ph.D. in chemistry. I will admit I’m biased writing this as I am an African-American chemist, but I believe that writing to spread more information about Daly because many do not know about her impact and how far it reached, from her time during her undergraduate career, to her careers after earning her doctorate, she helped pave the road for many scientists, especially underrepresented minorities.

Marie Daly was born to Ivan C. Daly, an immigrant from the British West Indies, and Helen Page in New York City. Her family always encouraged her to pursue higher education, her biggest influences being her father and her grandparents. Her father had attended Cornell University to become a chemist, but due to financial issues, he couldn’t complete his education. Her grandparents had a large library where Daly read books about science, her favorite book being Paul de Kruif’s The Microbe Hunters, a dramatization of scientists who helped discover the microbes necessary to create vaccines for many different illnesses (“Marie M. Daly”, 2020). This book was an important influence because it celebrated the achievements of scientists for their work and how it helped people. She attended Queens College, where she graduated in 1942 in the top 2.5% of students in the school (Brown, 2012). While working on her master’s and Ph.D. in chemistry at New York University and Columbia University, respectively, she worked as a lab assistant and a chemistry tutor at Queens College. Daly’s mentor was Mary Caldwell, who helped her learn what chemicals are produced in food digestion. Her thesis was titled, A Study of the Products Formed by the Action of Pancreatic Amylase on Corn Starch, earning her Ph.D. in 1947.

Resonance Structures of Purine and Pyrimidine Used in Daly’s Research.

After receiving her doctorate, she did postgraduate research in four areas, in multiple locations, including the Rockefeller Institute, Columbia University, and Albert Einstein College of Medicine. At Rockefeller Institute from 1948 to 1955, Daly worked with A.E. Miskey, studying the cell nucleus and its contents, back when its structure and function weren’t understood yet (Daly, Allfrey, & Mirsky, 1950). They analyzed the contents of nucleic acid and compared it to purine and pyrimidine molecules. In 1955, she studied arterial metabolism while being a biochemistry professor at the Albert Einstien College of Medicine. She also studied protein synthesis, the uptake of creatine in muscles (Daly & Seifter, 2004), and the impact of hypertension on the circulatory system. Some other impressive pursuits to mention include being funded by the American Cancer Association to study the cell nucleus, researching and creating an animal development model to evaluate the effects of cigarette smoking on lung structure to identify what parts of the lungs and neck are impacted, especially in chronic smoking (Park, Kikkawa, Goldring, Daly, et. al, 1977). For six years (1958 to 1963), she served as an investigator for the American Heart Association, working specifically on stroke research. She attended a conference where she and 30 other minority women discussed the challenges that they face in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) fields, leading to a report titled The Double Bind: The Price of Being a Minority Woman in Science (Malcom, Hall, & Brown, 1976).
Most importantly, she loved meeting minority medical students, being a mentor to them or encouraging them to pursue the careers of their dreams. She was inspired by her father’s journey to pursue an education she started a scholarship to Queen’s College for African-American chemists and physicists in honor of her father. I hope after reading this, you understand why writing this felt so important to me. As an African-American chemist, reading and learning about scientists like Marie Maynard Daly have inspired me to not just be the best chemist I can be, but they have inspired me to be a successful scientist that can inspire others. The idea of being the catalyst that makes a kid think, “Hey, maybe I can do what he or she’s doing when I grow up”, honestly makes me more happy and excited than anything else in this world. Thank for reading this, and let me know what you think.

References:

Allfrey, V et al. “Synthesis of protein in the pancreas. II. The role of ribonucleoprotein in protein synthesis.” The Journal of general physiology vol. 37,2 (1953): 157-75. DOI:10.1085/jgp.37.2.157

Biography.com Editors. (2020, January 15). Marie M. Daly. Retrieved February 6, 2020, from https://www.biography.com/scientist/marie-m-daly

Brown, J. E. (2012). African American women chemists. New York: Oxford University Press.

Daly, M. M., Allfrey, V. G., & Mirsky, A. E. (1950). Purine And Pyrimidine Contents Of Some Desoxypentose Nucleic Acids. The Journal of General Physiology, 33(5), 497–510. DOI: 10.1085/jgp.33.5.497

Daly, M. M., & Seifter, S. (2004, October 24). Uptake of creatine by cultured cells. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1016/0003-9861(80)90182-4

Malcom, S. M., Hall, P. Q., & Brown, J. W. (1976). The Double Bind: The Price of Being a Minority Woman in Science. Washington, DC: American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Park, S. S., Kikkawa, Y., Goldring, I. P., Daly, M. M., Zelefsky, M., Shim, C., . . . Morita, T. (1977). An Animal Model of Cigarette Smoking in Beagle Dogs. American Review of Respiratory Disease, 115(6), 971-979. DOI:10.1164/arrd.1977.115.6.971

 

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About Author

Hi, y'all!

I'm Jalen, a Master's student studying Materials Science and Engineering at Georgia Tech! As part of my thesis, I'm researching different ways to build organic cells. I'm a part of Charged Magazine because I want to show my love of science through articles, videos, and interviews. I also hope to educate people about multiple facets of diversity in STEM.

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  Timothy Durham was convicted of rape when a test showed his DNA genotype matched the DNA recovered from the crime scene. Eye witnesses testified that Durham was in a different state at the time of the incident, but he wasn’t exonerated from his 3000 year sentence until follow up DNA analysis showed that the preliminary forensic analysis used in the trial was misinterpreted (Thomas et al.). DNA testing serves an invaluable part in our criminal justice system, but it comes with complications and bias that can lead to wrongful convictions and misinformed juries.  

Background:

Forensic genetics aims to identify the origin of a biological sample. It can be traced back to Karl Landsteiner who discovered human ABO blood groups. With blood groups, suspects could be eliminated based on their blood type. For example, if a suspect had type A blood and there was type B blood left at the scene by the perpetrator, the investigators could rule out the suspect. Unfortunately, the reverse didn’t work. If the suspect and perpetrator both had the same blood type, it can’t be concluded that the suspect was guilty. Blood identifiers evolved into 8 distinct categories which improved the ability to eliminate suspects, but could only conclude that (if the system matched) it might be the perpetrator or this person might be related to the perpetrator (Jobling and Gill). The field evolved in the 1980s with the discovery of Minisatellites, lines of repetitive DNA that don’t encode proteins. Minisatellite patterns in DNA create what we know today as the DNA fingerprint, and it has a much higher accuracy rate than previous methods (Augustyn et al.). Around the same time, a breakthrough for victims of sexual assault was discovered. In the case of assault, bodily fluids of both the victim and the assaulter can get mixed. A process called differential lysis was created which could selectively increase the concentration of sperm in a fluid sample thereby allowing for accurate DNA testing (Jobling and Gill). Forensics evolved to use single-locus probe testing after several years because of its ease of interpretation. It looked at specific minisatellites that had high variability between subjects. This was the first DNA-based method to be used in a criminal investigation. Two murder homicides from several years apart were connected using DNA evidence. The evidence was then used to exonerate an innocent man, and the guilty party was found when he tried to evade mandatory DNA testing for all men in the small town. His guilt was then reinforced when the DNA profiles matched, and he gave a confession (Jobling and Gill). Finding DNA at a crime scene doesn’t guarantee that you’ll find a murderer. There are issues with non-pure samples and limited samples that make DNA work difficult, and accreditation of facilities and new techniques and take time (Jobling and Gill).  

Subjectivity of DNA Interpretation:

In a 2009 publication, the National Academy of Science discusses the possibility for subjective influence in lab based forensics. The interpretation bias happens in complex cases where, for example, there could be a mixture of DNA. A study published in 2011 looked specifically at this issue. A gang rape happened in Georgia, and the mixture in DNA from the case was used to prosecute one suspect after another suspect took a plea bargain to testify against him. With DNA mixtures, there are three possible conclusions: suspect excluded, suspect cannot be excluded, and inconclusive. If the suspect is excluded, it means that there’s little to no possibility that his DNA is part of the sample. If the suspect cannot be excluded, it means that there’s a possibility that his DNA is part of the sample. In the trial, the DNA examiners who knew the context of the case concluded that the suspect being prosecuted could not be excluded. The 2011 study gave the DNA evidence from this case and the DNA profiles of the suspects to 17 forensic examiners. These examiners had no context of the case, and they all worked independently. Of the 17, only 1 came to the same conclusion (suspect cannot be excluded) as the examiners who knew the context of the case. Twelve of the 17 concluded that the suspect who was prosecuted and convicted had no relation to the DNA found in the sample. Not only does this show that subjectivity occurs due to the context of the case, but the 17 examiners came up with different findings based on their past experiences meaning that not all DNA analysis is objective. Some organizations like the Scientific Working Group on DNA Analysis Methods say that quantitative statistical evidence should be presented with every categorical conclusion, but the US doesn’t require this (Dror and Hampikian).

False Positives:

There are two categories that cause wrongful identification in a DNA report: coincidental matches and false positives. Coincidental matches are DNA matches between two unrelated people. The probability of these matches is about 1 to 500,000 for white individuals and about 1 to 350,000 for black individuals. This small probability of coincidental matches makes people feel confident in DNA evidence. False positives, on the other hand, are matches between DNA and test DNA that result from issues in the forensics lab. There have been multiple cases of forensics labs accidentally switching victim and suspected rapist DNA which lead to convictions that were later overturned when the lab realized the error. There are also cases of misreading or misunderstanding a sample. In a case from 1993, a man was convicted of rape because someone interpreted a mixed sample of victim and perpetrator DNA as an individual sample. The conviction was again overturned. To prevent false convictions, retesting DNA is allowed, but it’s not an efficient solution. Many people are pushing for statistical information on the probability of false positives, so that the jurors can make accurate judgements based on DNA evidence (Thomas et al.).  

Conclusion:

DNA analysis is a useful tool for the criminal justice system, but subjectivity can be an issue in forensic testing. To combat wrongful convictions, there are organizations like The Innocence Project who use DNA testing to free the innocent, but reformed forensic testing standards should be put in place to prevent subjectivity and to ensure juries are correctly informed during trials. https://www.innocenceproject.org/    

Citation:

Augustyn , Adam, et al. “DNA Finerprinting.” Encyclopedia Britannica , 26 Apr. 2018, www.britannica.com/science/DNA-fingerprinting#ref153186. Dror, Itiel E., and Greg Hampikian. “Subjectivity and Bias in Forensic DNA Mixture Interpretation.” Science & Justice, vol. 51, no. 4, 2011, pp. 204–208., doi:10.1016/j.scijus.2011.08.004. Jobling, Mark A., and Peter Gill. “Encoded Evidence: DNA in Forensic Analysis.” Nature Reviews: Genetics, vol. 5, no. 10, Oct. 2004, pp. 739–751., doi:10.1038/nrg1455. Thompson, William C, et al. “How the Probability of a False Positive Affects the Value of DNA Evidence.” Journal of Forensic Sciences, vol. 48, no. 1, Jan. 2003, pp. 1–8., doi:10.1520/jfs2001171.