Mary F. Lyon
Mary Frances Lyon ( born May 15, 1925 in Norwich, England) is a British geneticist. She ran from 1962 to 1986, the Section of Genetics, Department of Radiation Biology of the British Medical Research Council, and focused particularly on the causes of mutations as well as questions of inheritance. In recognition of her research, she was awarded among others, the Gairdner Foundation International Award and the Royal Medal and added to the National Academy of Sciences.
Life
Mary Frances Lyon was born in 1925 in Norwich and graduated in 1946 graduated with a BA at the University of Cambridge from where it four years later received his doctorate. After the graduation, she worked in a newly established research group in Edinburgh, which was to investigate the genetic effects of radiation. In 1955 she moved together with the working group to the Department of Radiation Biology of the Medical Research Council in Harwell, England. There, she led from 1962 to 1986, the Section of Genetics. In 1990, she retired, but has since continued searching operates.
Scientific work
The research interest of Mary Frances Lyon applies the effects of radiation and chemical factors on mutations as well as the basics of mutation processes and their medical implications. In addition, she worked on the basis of research on mice with questions of inheritance. In 1961 she postulated the Lyon hypothesis and thus the description of a process which is now known as X - inactivation. The emergence of purported Barr Body inactivated X chromosomes and compacted in this process is called in her honor Lyonization.
Awards
Mary Frances Lyon is a foreign member ( Foreign Associate ) of the American Academy of Sciences. Among the powers conferred awards include the awarded by the Royal Society Royal Medal ( 1984), the Gairdner Foundation International Award ( 1985), the William Allan Award ( 1986), the Wolf Prize in Medicine ( 1997), the 250,000 U.S. dollar doped March of Dimes Prize in Developmental Biology ( 2004) and Rosenstiel Award ( 2007).