Background
She was born in Hong Kong and educated at the University of Sydney – Bachelor of Science(Honours) 1969 and Doctor of Philosophy in 1976.
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Marianne Frommer
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University of Sydney.
Career
She is best known for developing a protocol to map deoxyribonucleic acid methylation by bisulphite genomic sequencing. Early in her career Frommer investigated the molecular biology of "satellite DNAs" in the human genome. Another important result was the identification of an Alu (SINE) sequence as part of the repeat unit in Satellite 1, thereby showing that SINEs could be a highly repeated component of centromeric heterochromatin.
Frommer then determined the chromosomal locations of the major simple-sequence repeats by devising a new method of non-radioactive labelling, based on incorporation of bromodeoxyuridine into single-stranded probes.
The method was used to localise satellite repeats very precisely. This research led to the observation of methylation patterns at CpG dinucleotides in sequenced genomic repeated deoxyribonucleic acid. In 1984, Frommer was fortunate to spend a study leave in the laboratory of Doctor Adrian Bird, and took part in the characterisation of what were then termed HTF (HpaII Tiny Fragments) islands in mammalian genomes.
She and her Doctor of Philosophy student Margaret Gardiner-Garden were able to identify these genomic components by deoxyribonucleic acid sequence characteristics alone, without prior knowledge of methylation status, and gave them the name "CpG islands. They showed that CpG islands are a distinct feature of vertebrate genomes and that CpG islands are associated with genes.
They showed that the majority of neural and neuroendocrine genes were associated with CpG islands and therefore proposed that CpG islands facilitate regulated transcription from neural precursors and developing neural tissue in the early embryo.
In 1998 Frommer realised that it should be possible to amplify the products of a deoxyribonucleic acid deamination reaction and distinguish methylated and unmethylated molecules by dideoxy-sequencing. Frommer"s protocol yielded a clear positive display of methylcytosine residues. The polymerase chain reaction products of bisulphite reactions could be sequenced directly to measure the extent of methylation at any CpG site in a population of deoxyribonucleic acid molecules.
The particular strength of the method was that cloning and sequencing of the polymerase chain reaction products yielded methylation patterns or "maps" of single deoxyribonucleic acid molecules.
Frommer and her colleagues have also developed an extraordinarily powerful model system to study the molecular biology of behavioural characteristics and evolutionary processes using native Australian fruit flies. Frommer is a role model for female scientists.
She was elected as a fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 2010. An outstanding feat - particularly because she did not have a traditional research trajectory.
She worked part-time for two periods of her career.
Frommer is most proud of her students and having run a lab with a substantial proportion of part-time women scientists, at a time when that was something of a no-northern Frommer is also interested in houses and design, especially in energy and water conservation aspects.
