# Mary-Lou Pardue

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American geneticist (1933–2024)

Mary-Lou Pardue Born (1933-09-15)September 15, 1933 Lexington, Kentucky, U.S. Died June 1, 2024(2024-06-01) (aged 90) Education College of William and Mary University of Tennessee Yale University Known for Study of Drosophila telomeres Scientific career Fields Genetics, cell biology Institutions Massachusetts Institute of Technology Thesis (1970) Doctoral advisor Joseph Gall Notable students Karmella Haynes Thomas Cech

**Mary-Lou Pardue** (September 15, 1933 – June 1, 2024) was an American [geneticist](/source/Geneticist) and professor [emerita](/source/Emeritus) in the Department of Biology at the [Massachusetts Institute of Technology](/source/Massachusetts_Institute_of_Technology), where she originally joined in 1972. Her research focused on the role of [telomeres](/source/Telomere) in [chromosome](/source/Chromosome) replication, particularly in *[Drosophila](/source/Drosophila)* (fruit flies).[1][2] Pardue died on June 1, 2024, at the age of 90.[3]

## Early life and education

Pardue was born in [Lexington, Kentucky](/source/Lexington%2C_Kentucky) on September 15, 1933.[4][5] She received a [bachelor's degree](/source/Bachelor's_degree) in biology in 1955 from the [College of William and Mary](/source/College_of_William_and_Mary). Pardue received a [master's degree](/source/Master's_degree) in radiation biology in 1959 from the [University of Tennessee](/source/University_of_Tennessee), where she had been eligible for a Ph.D. but convinced the department to give her the master's degree instead, later explaining in an interview that "in the society I was in it was quite all right for a wife to be going to school, but getting a Ph.D. was a little too serious".[2]: 98 She subsequently worked for several years as a research technician at Oak Ridge National Laboratory before returning to graduate school in 1965 at [Yale University](/source/Yale_University), from which she received a Ph.D. in biology in 1970.[5] She worked under the supervision of [Joseph Gall](/source/Joseph_G._Gall), whose support of women in his research laboratory was considered highly unusual at the time.[6] Pardue then became a [postdoctoral fellow](/source/Postdoctoral_fellow) with [Max Birnstiel](/source/Max_Birnstiel) at the [University of Edinburgh](/source/University_of_Edinburgh).[2]

## Academic career

As Pardue later described the process, her search for a faculty position in the early 1970s coincided with broad interest in United States academic institutions in hiring women, and she was surprised to be heavily recruited. After initially being rejected by MIT, she was subsequently offered an [associate professor](/source/Associate_professor) position there and accepted it in part because other offers were for more junior [assistant professor](/source/Assistant_professor) positions, and in part because the department already had other women faculty.[2] She became a [full professor](/source/Full_professor) in the department in 1980.[2] In 1995, Pardue became the first [Boris Magasanik](/source/Boris_Magasanik) Professor of Biology.[7] Pardue was among the women faculty who organized with fellow MIT biologist [Nancy Hopkins](/source/Nancy_Hopkins_(scientist)) in the mid-1990s to bring complaints of institutional discrimination against women faculty to then-President [Charles Vest](/source/Charles_Vest).[8][9] In 1994, Pardue was one of 16 women faculty in the School of Science at MIT who drafted and co-signed a letter to the then-Dean of Science (now Chancellor of Berkeley) Robert Birgeneau, which started a campaign to highlight and challenge gender discrimination at MIT.[10]

Pardue became a [fellow](/source/Fellow) of the [American Association for the Advancement of Science](/source/American_Association_for_the_Advancement_of_Science) in 1978, a member of the [United States National Academy of Sciences](/source/United_States_National_Academy_of_Sciences) in 1983 and a fellow of the [American Academy of Arts and Sciences](/source/American_Academy_of_Arts_and_Sciences) in 1985.[1][7] She served as the president of the [Genetics Society of America](/source/Genetics_Society_of_America) in 1982–1983 and of the [American Society for Cell Biology](/source/American_Society_for_Cell_Biology) in 1985–1986.[7]

## Research

Pardue's work with Gall on developing the technique of [in situ hybridization](/source/In_situ_hybridization) had been highly influential.[11][12] Work in her research group at MIT focused on [telomeres](/source/Telomere) in the [chromosomes](/source/Chromosome) of the [model organism](/source/Model_organism) *[Drosophila](/source/Drosophila)* (fruit flies), with particular interest in the [retrotransposon](/source/Retrotransposon) elements that maintain *Drosophila* telomeres, unlike many other organisms in which the enzyme [telomerase](/source/Telomerase) performs much the same function.[1] Her work is believed to be evolutionarily related to telomerase-generated telomeres, which highlights the theory that parasitic transposable elements could have possibly evolved from mechanisms in the cell that exist to maintain chromosomal health.[13] Pardue's 1969 publication entitled *Molecular hybridization of radioactive DNA to the DNA of cytological preparations,* focused on the radioactive DNA localization in the nuclei of ovarian cells in *Xenopus*.[14] Through her work, she was able to conclude that the localization of binding in the oocytes of *Xenopus* is specific.[14] Pardue also found that hybridization reactions with radioactive DNA were able to discriminate between different types of DNA.[14]

Pardue died on June 1, 2024, at the age of 90.[3][5]

## References

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-mit_1-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-mit_1-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-mit_1-2) ["Mary-Lou Pardue"](https://biology.mit.edu/people/mary_lou_pardue). *MIT Department of Biology*. Retrieved October 3, 2015.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-wasserman_2-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-wasserman_2-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-wasserman_2-2) [***d***](#cite_ref-wasserman_2-3) [***e***](#cite_ref-wasserman_2-4) Wasserman, Elga (2002). [*The door in the dream conversations with eminent women in science*](https://archive.org/details/doorindream00elga) (Reprinted in pbk. ed.). Washington, DC: Joseph Henry Press. pp. [97–102](https://archive.org/details/doorindream00elga/page/97). [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [9780309086196](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/9780309086196).

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-:2_3-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-:2_3-1) ["Mary-Lou Pardue"](https://www.nasonline.org/member-directory/deceased-members/51843.html). *National Academy of Sciences*. Retrieved June 12, 2024.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** [Mary Lou Pardue](https://steinhour.openlcc.net/biol125-10950/2020/10/08/mary-lou-pardue/)

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-:1_5-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-:1_5-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-:1_5-2) [Susan A. Gerbi](/source/Susan_Gerbi); Allan C. Spradling (October 4, 2024). ["Mary-Lou Pardue (1933 to 2024): Investigating chromosomes and genomes by in situ hybridization"](https://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2416551121). *[Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America](/source/Proceedings_of_the_National_Academy_of_Sciences_of_the_United_States_of_America)*. **121** (42). [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.1073/PNAS.2416551121](https://doi.org/10.1073%2FPNAS.2416551121). [ISSN](/source/ISSN_(identifier)) [0027-8424](https://search.worldcat.org/issn/0027-8424). [Wikidata](/source/WDQ_(identifier)) [Q130539282](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q130539282).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-6)** Mastony, Colleen (October 6, 2009). ["Female scientists' family tree traces roots to Yale professor"](https://www.chicagotribune.com/2009/10/26/an-open-mind-an-open-door-changed-direction-of-science/). *Chicago Tribune*. Retrieved October 5, 2015.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-mitnews_7-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-mitnews_7-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-mitnews_7-2) ["Pardue is first Magasanik Professor"](https://news.mit.edu/1995/pardue-1108). *MIT News*. November 8, 1995. Retrieved October 3, 2015.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-8)** Hopkins, Nancy (2010). Kaiser, David (ed.). *Becoming MIT : moments of decision*. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. p. 188. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [9780262113236](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/9780262113236).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-9)** Pardue, Mary-Lou; Hopkins, Nancy; Potter, Mary C.; Ceyer, Sylvia (September 9, 1999). ["Moving on from discrimination at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology"](http://www.nature.com/nature/debates/women/women_1.html). *Nature*: 1–2. [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.1038/nature28068](https://doi.org/10.1038%2Fnature28068). Retrieved October 4, 2015.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-10)** Zernike, Kate (2023). *The Exceptions: Nancy Hopkins, MIT, and the Fight for Women in Science*. New York, NY: Scribner. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-1-9821-3183-8](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-1-9821-3183-8).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-11)** Evanko, Daniel (October 15, 2007). ["Nature Milestones: DNA Technologies"](http://www.nature.com/milestones/miledna/full/miledna03.html). *Nature*. Nature Publishing Group. [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.1038/nrg2247](https://doi.org/10.1038%2Fnrg2247). Retrieved October 3, 2015.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-12)** Pardue, ML; Gall, JG (October 1969). ["Molecular hybridization of radioactive DNA to the DNA of cytological preparations"](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC223386). *Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America*. **64** (2): 600–4. [Bibcode](/source/Bibcode_(identifier)):[1969PNAS...64..600P](https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1969PNAS...64..600P). [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.1073/pnas.64.2.600](https://doi.org/10.1073%2Fpnas.64.2.600). [PMC](/source/PMC_(identifier)) [223386](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC223386). [PMID](/source/PMID_(identifier)) [5261036](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/5261036).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-13)** ["Mary-Lou Pardue"](http://www.nasonline.org/member-directory/members/51843.html). *www.nasonline.org*. Retrieved November 1, 2019.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-:0_14-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-:0_14-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-:0_14-2) Pardue, Mary Lou; Gall, Joseph G. (October 1, 1969). ["Molecular Hybridization of Radioactive Dna to the Dna of Cytological Preparations"](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC223386). *Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences*. **64** (2): 600–604. [Bibcode](/source/Bibcode_(identifier)):[1969PNAS...64..600P](https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1969PNAS...64..600P). [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.1073/pnas.64.2.600](https://doi.org/10.1073%2Fpnas.64.2.600). [ISSN](/source/ISSN_(identifier)) [0027-8424](https://search.worldcat.org/issn/0027-8424). [PMC](/source/PMC_(identifier)) [223386](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC223386). [PMID](/source/PMID_(identifier)) [5261036](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/5261036).

## External links

- [Official website](https://biology.mit.edu/people/mary_lou_pardue)

- [A Conversation with Mary-Lou Pardue](http://video.mit.edu/watch/a-conversation-with-mary-lou-pardue-5392/) from MIT Video

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Mary-Lou Pardue](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary-Lou_Pardue) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary-Lou_Pardue?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.