(This overview of the molecular structures and mechanisms ...)
This overview of the molecular structures and mechanisms that underlie the utilization of genetic information by complex organisms emphasizes the experimental aspects of molecular genetics.
(The book aims to convey to non-specialists the excitement...)
The book aims to convey to non-specialists the excitement and significance of recent discoveries dealing with genes and the innovative capabilities that stem from these advances.
(Scientists Robert M. Hazen and Maxine Singer ake us into ...)
Scientists Robert M. Hazen and Maxine Singer ake us into the worlds of chemistry, physics, earth sciences and biochemistry, to explore the secrets for which science does not have an answer-and the relentless, coordinated efforts to bring those secrets to light.
Maxine Frank Singer is an American biochemist and science administrator. She is known as a leading scientist in the field of human genetics and as a staunch advocate of responsible use of biochemical genetics research.
Background
Maxine Frank Singer was born on February 15, 1931, in New York City, New York, United States. She is a daughter of Hyman Frank, an attorney, and Henrietta Frank (maiden name Perlowitz), a hospital admissions officer, camp director, and model.
Education
Maxine Singer received general education at New York City public schools revealing her passion for chemistry at an early age. Encouraged in that interest by one of her school teachers, she entered Swarthmore College after graduating from Midwood High School.
Singer received a Bachelor of Arts in chemistry with honors in 1952. In 1956, a year before receiving her Doctor of Philosophy degree in protein chemistry from Yale University which she studied under Joseph Fruton, Singer became a postdoctoral fellow at Heppel's Laboratory of Biochemistry in the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (later the National Institute of Arthritis, Metabolism, and Digestive Diseases, or NIAMDD).
Singer has also been a recipient of honorary degrees from Brandeis and Harvard Universities, Wesleyan University, Lehigh University, the University of Maryland, the City University of New York, the University of Nebraska, and from several United States colleges.
The start of Maxine Singer career can be counted from her service at the Heppel's Laboratory of Biochemistry of the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases where she worked as a United States Public Health Service postdoctoral fellow from 1956 to 1958. She then became a research chemist on the staff of the section on enzymes and cellular biochemistry occupying the post till 1974. There she conducted DNA research on tumor-causing viruses as well as on ribonucleic acid (RNA). In the early 1970s, Singer also served as a visiting scientist with the Department of Genetics of the National Institute of Health committee.
During her career, Maxine Singer has also served on the Editorial Board of Science magazine and has contributed numerous articles. In her writing for that publication about recombinant DNA research, she stressed the benefits to humanity that recombinant DNA techniques could bring, especially in increasing the understanding of the serious and incurable disease.
In 1974, Singer accepted a new position as chief of the Section of Nucleic Acid Enzymology, Division of Cancer Biology and Diagnosis (DCBD) at the Laboratory of Biochemistry of the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland. In 1980 she became chief of the Laboratory. She held this post until 1988 when she became president of the Carnegie Institution for Science, a highly regarded research organization in Washington, D.C. Singer remained affiliated with the National Cancer Institute as scientist emeritus during the first ten years at Carnegie. She left the Carnegie Institution in 2002.
In addition to her laboratory research, Maxine Singer has devoted considerable time and energy to other scientific and professional pursuits. In 1981, she taught in the biochemistry department at the University of California at Berkeley. Her collaborative graduate-level textbook with Paul Berg on molecular genetics, Genes and Genomes: A Changing Perspective, received the high praise form the reviewers for its clear presentation of difficult concepts. She has also authored a comprehensive biography of a well-known geneticist George Beadle entitled George Beadle: An Uncommon Farmer.
Singer has also written extensively on less technical aspects of science. She and Berg authored a book for laypeople on genetic engineering, and she continued to promote the benefits of recombinant DNA techniques and battle public suspicion and fear long after the controversy peaked in the 1970s. In the early 1990s, for example, the scientist issued an article encouraging the public to try the first genetically engineered food to reach American supermarket shelves.
In addition to her writing and lecturing, Maxine Singer has served on numerous advisory boards in the United States and abroad, including science institutes in Naples, Italy, Bangkok, Thailand, and Rehovot, Israel. She has also served on an advisory board to the Pope and as a consultant to the Committee on Human Values of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops. She worked on a Yale committee that investigated the university’s South African investments, and on Johnson and Johnson’s Board of Directors. Concerned about the quality of science education in the United States, she started First Light, a science program for inner-city children which goal is to raise the level of science and mathematics teaching.
Singer has traveled extensively and maintained long work weeks to accommodate all her activities.
(Scientists Robert M. Hazen and Maxine Singer ake us into ...)
1997
Views
While Maxine Singer was working in the Department of Genetics of the National Institutes of Health committee, scientists learned how to take DNA fragments from one organism and insert them into the living cells of another. On one hand, the new research brought unprecedented opportunities to discover cures for serious diseases, to develop new crops, and otherwise to benefit humanity. Yet the prospect of creating as-yet-unknown life forms, some possibly hazardous, was frightening to many.
In 1972, one of Singer’s colleagues and personal friends Paul Berg of Stanford University was the first to create recombinant DNA molecules. He later voluntarily stopped conducting related experiments involving DNA manipulation in the genes of tumor-causing viruses because of some scientists’ fears that a virus of unknown properties might escape from the laboratory and spread into the general population.
Although Berg’s self-restraint was significant, the catalyst for the debate over gene-splicing was the 1973 Gordon Conference, an annual high-level research meeting. Singer, who was co-chair of the event, was approached by several nucleic acid scientists with the suggestion that the conference includes consideration of safety issues. Singer agreed. She opened the discussion with an acknowledgment that DNA manipulation could assist in combatting health problems, yet such experimentation brought to bear a number of moral and ethical concerns.
The scientists present decided, by ballot, to send a Public letter about the safety risks of recombinant DNA research to the president of the National Academy of Sciences, and asked Science magazine to publish it. Singer and her co-chair, Dieter Soli of Yale University, wrote the letter warning that organisms of an unpredictable nature could result from the new technique, and suggested that the National Academy of Sciences study the problem and recommend guidelines. Concern generated by this letter led to another meeting at the Asilomar Conference Center in Pacific Grove, California, where a debate ensued. Such proceedings, to consider the ethical issues arising from the new DNA research, were unprecedented in the scientific community. Immediately after the Asilomar Conference concluded, a committee began formulating guidelines for the Weizman Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel.
In helping develop the guidelines. Singer advocated a careful analytic approach. In 1976, she presented four principles to the committee to be used in drafting the guidelines. She advised that certain experiments posed such serious hazards that they should be banned altogether; that experiments with lesser or no potential hazards should be permitted if their benefits are unobtainable through conventional methods and if they are properly safeguarded; that the more risk in an experiment, the stricter the safeguards should be; and that the guidelines should be reviewed annually.
Singer provided a calm voice of reason throughout the public debate over gene-splicing that followed. Committees of laypeople, such as the Coalition for Responsible Genetic Research, held demonstrations calling for a complete ban on recombinant DNA research.
Maxine Singer has also been a fervent defender of women in science. She has advocated for the lack of bias from outside the universities to women who are willing to engage themselves in scientific or engineering research.
Membership
Maxine Singer became a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1978.
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
,
United States
1978
Interests
scuba diving, cooking, literature
Connections
Maxine Frank Singer married Daniel Morris Singer on June 15, 1952. The family produced four children named Amy Elizabeth, Ellen Ruth, David Byrd, and Stephanie Frank.