{{Short description|American geneticist (1933–2024)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=June 2024}} {{Infobox scientist | name = Mary-Lou Pardue | image = | image_size = | caption = | birth_date = {{birth date|1933|09|15}} | birth_place = [[Lexington, Kentucky]], U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|2024|06|01|1933|09|15}} | death_place = | fields = [[Genetics]], [[cell biology]] | workplaces = [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]] | education = {{Plainlist| * [[College of William and Mary]] * [[University of Tennessee]] * [[Yale University]] }} | thesis_title = | thesis_year = 1970 | doctoral_advisor = [[Joseph G. Gall|Joseph Gall]] | known_for = Study of ''[[Drosophila]]'' [[telomere]]s | awards = | website = | notable_students = [[Karmella Haynes]] <br /> [[Thomas Cech]] }}
'''Mary-Lou Pardue''' (September 15, 1933 – June 1, 2024) was an American [[geneticist]] and professor [[Emeritus|emerita]] in the Department of Biology at the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]], where she originally joined in 1972. Her research focused on the role of [[telomere]]s in [[chromosome]] replication, particularly in ''[[Drosophila]]'' (fruit flies).<ref name=mit>{{cite web|title=Mary-Lou Pardue|url=https://biology.mit.edu/people/mary_lou_pardue|website=MIT Department of Biology|accessdate=3 October 2015}}</ref><ref name=wasserman>{{cite book|last1=Wasserman|first1=Elga|title=The door in the dream conversations with eminent women in science|url=https://archive.org/details/doorindream00elga|url-access=registration|date=2002|publisher=Joseph Henry Press|location=Washington, DC|isbn=9780309086196|pages=[https://archive.org/details/doorindream00elga/page/97 97–102]|edition=Reprinted in pbk.}}</ref> Pardue died on June 1, 2024, at the age of 90.<ref name=":2">{{cite web |title=Mary-Lou Pardue |url=https://www.nasonline.org/member-directory/deceased-members/51843.html |website=National Academy of Sciences |access-date=12 June 2024}}</ref>
==Early life and education== Pardue was born in [[Lexington, Kentucky]] on September 15, 1933.<ref>[https://steinhour.openlcc.net/biol125-10950/2020/10/08/mary-lou-pardue/ Mary Lou Pardue]</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite Q|Q130539282}}</ref> She received a [[bachelor's degree]] in biology in 1955 from the [[College of William and Mary]]. Pardue received a [[master's degree]] in radiation biology in 1959 from the [[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".<ref name=wasserman />{{rp|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]], from which she received a Ph.D. in biology in 1970.<ref name=":1" /> She worked under the supervision of [[Joseph G. Gall|Joseph Gall]], whose support of women in his research laboratory was considered highly unusual at the time.<ref>{{cite news|title = Female scientists' family tree traces roots to Yale professor|url = https://www.chicagotribune.com/2009/10/26/an-open-mind-an-open-door-changed-direction-of-science/|access-date = 2015-10-05|date = 6 October 2009|newspaper = Chicago Tribune|last = Mastony|first = Colleen}}</ref> Pardue then became a [[postdoctoral fellow]] with [[Max Birnstiel]] at the [[University of Edinburgh]].<ref name=wasserman />
==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]] position there and accepted it in part because other offers were for more junior [[assistant professor]] positions, and in part because the department already had other women faculty.<ref name=wasserman /> She became a [[full professor]] in the department in 1980.<ref name=wasserman /> In 1995, Pardue became the first [[Boris Magasanik]] Professor of Biology.<ref name=mitnews>{{cite web|title=Pardue is first Magasanik Professor|url=https://news.mit.edu/1995/pardue-1108|website=MIT News|accessdate=3 October 2015|date=8 November 1995}}</ref> Pardue was among the women faculty who organized with fellow MIT biologist [[Nancy Hopkins (scientist)|Nancy Hopkins]] in the mid-1990s to bring complaints of institutional discrimination against women faculty to then-President [[Charles Vest]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Hopkins|first1=Nancy|editor1-last=Kaiser|editor1-first=David|title=Becoming MIT : moments of decision|date=2010|publisher=MIT Press|location=Cambridge, Mass.|isbn=9780262113236|pages=188}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|title = Moving on from discrimination at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology|url = http://www.nature.com/nature/debates/women/women_1.html|journal = Nature|accessdate = 2015-10-04|date = 9 September 1999|last1 = Pardue|first1 = Mary-Lou|last2 = Hopkins|first2 = Nancy|last3 = Potter|first3 = Mary C.|last4 = Ceyer|first4 = Sylvia|pages = 1–2|doi = 10.1038/nature28068|url-access = subscription}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Zernike |first=Kate |title=The Exceptions: Nancy Hopkins, MIT, and the Fight for Women in Science |publisher=Scribner |year=2023 |isbn=978-1-9821-3183-8 |location=New York, NY}}</ref>
Pardue became a [[fellow]] of the [[American Association for the Advancement of Science]] in 1978, a member of the [[United States National Academy of Sciences]] in 1983 and a fellow of the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]] in 1985.<ref name=mit /><ref name=mitnews /> She served as the president of the [[Genetics Society of America]] in 1982–1983 and of the [[American Society for Cell Biology]] in 1985–1986.<ref name=mitnews />
==Research== Pardue's work with Gall on developing the technique of [[in situ hybridization]] had been highly influential.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Evanko|first1=Daniel|title=Nature Milestones: DNA Technologies|url=http://www.nature.com/milestones/miledna/full/miledna03.html |journal=Nature |publisher=Nature Publishing Group|accessdate=3 October 2015|doi=10.1038/nrg2247|date=15 October 2007|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Pardue|first1=ML|last2=Gall|first2=JG|title=Molecular hybridization of radioactive DNA to the DNA of cytological preparations.|journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America|date=October 1969|volume=64|issue=2|pages=600–4|pmid=5261036|doi=10.1073/pnas.64.2.600|pmc=223386|bibcode=1969PNAS...64..600P|doi-access=free}}</ref> Work in her research group at MIT focused on [[telomere]]s in the [[chromosome]]s of the [[model organism]] ''[[Drosophila]]'' (fruit flies), with particular interest in the [[retrotransposon]] elements that maintain ''Drosophila'' telomeres, unlike many other organisms in which the enzyme [[telomerase]] performs much the same function.<ref name=mit /> 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.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.nasonline.org/member-directory/members/51843.html|title=Mary-Lou Pardue|website=www.nasonline.org|access-date=2019-11-01}}</ref> 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''.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last1=Pardue|first1=Mary Lou|last2=Gall|first2=Joseph G.|date=1969-10-01|title=Molecular Hybridization of Radioactive Dna to the Dna of Cytological Preparations|journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences|language=en|volume=64|issue=2|pages=600–604|doi=10.1073/pnas.64.2.600|issn=0027-8424|pmid=5261036|pmc=223386|bibcode=1969PNAS...64..600P|doi-access=free}}</ref> Through her work, she was able to conclude that the localization of binding in the oocytes of ''Xenopus'' is specific.<ref name=":0" /> Pardue also found that hybridization reactions with radioactive DNA were able to discriminate between different types of DNA.<ref name=":0" />
Pardue died on June 1, 2024, at the age of 90.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":1" />
==References== {{Reflist|30em}}
==External links== *{{Official website|https://biology.mit.edu/people/mary_lou_pardue}} *[http://video.mit.edu/watch/a-conversation-with-mary-lou-pardue-5392/ A Conversation with Mary-Lou Pardue] from MIT Video
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Pardue, Mary-Lou}} [[Category:1933 births]] [[Category:2024 deaths]] [[Category:University of Tennessee alumni]] [[Category:Yale University alumni]] [[Category:MIT School of Science faculty]] [[Category:Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences]] [[Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences]] [[Category:College of William & Mary alumni]] [[Category:Scientists from Lexington, Kentucky]]