Gail R. Martin facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Gail Roberta Martin
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Martin in 2015
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| Born |
Gail Roberta Zuckman
1944 (age 80–81) Bronx, New York, U.S.
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| Spouse(s) | G. Steven Martin (m. 1969) |
| Children | 1 son |
| Awards | Member, US National Academy of Sciences; Foreign Member, Royal Society; Pearl Meister Greengard Prize; E.G. Conklin Medal |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Developmental Biology |
| Institutions | University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) |
Gail Roberta Martin (born in 1944) is an American biologist. She is a professor emerita at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). She is famous for her important work on isolating special cells called pluripotent stem cells from normal embryos. She even created the term 'embryonic stem cells' for them.
Dr. Martin is also known for her research on how fibroblast growth factors (FGFs) work. These are like signals that help organs grow and develop. She also studied how these signals are controlled in the body. Her team also helped improve gene targeting technology. This is a way to make specific changes to genes.
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Early Life and School
Martin grew up in The Bronx, New York. She was the only child of a pharmacist and a schoolteacher. She finished high school in 1960. Then, she earned her degree in Zoology from the University of Wisconsin in 1964.
After that, she went to the University of California, Berkeley (UCB) for her graduate studies. This was a busy time because of the Free Speech Movement. This was a student protest that happened in 1964–65. Martin and other students spent a lot of time discussing and joining in these activities. She earned her Ph.D. in 1971. During this time, she married Steven Martin, who was also a scientist.
Her Work in Science
After finishing her studies, Martin moved to London in 1973. She worked with scientist Martin J. Evans. He was studying teratocarcinomas, which are a type of tumor. These tumors contain special cells called embryonal carcinoma (EC) cells. These cells are like stem cells because they can turn into many different cell types.
For two years, Martin worked on finding a way to keep these EC cells in their early, undeveloped state. She also found ways to make them change into other cell types in the lab. This research was very important. It helped other scientists later on to find and study pluripotent stem cells from normal mouse and human embryos.
In 1976, Martin and her husband returned to Berkeley. She then worked at UCSF. During this time, she and her team showed that female EC cells could be used to study X-chromosome inactivation. This is a natural process where one of the two X chromosomes in female cells becomes inactive.
Discovering Embryonic Stem Cells
In 1976, Martin joined the UCSF faculty and started her own lab. Her biggest achievement was isolating pluripotent stem cells from normal mouse blastocysts. A blastocyst is a very early stage of an embryo. Other scientists, Evans and Kaufman, also achieved this in the same year.
Later, Martin and her team used advanced genetic methods. They showed how important FGF signals are for the development of many organs, like limbs. Her lab also led the way in studying how the body controls FGF signals. These studies helped scientists understand how sensitive development is to even small changes in these signals.
Helping Other Scientists
While at UCSF, Martin also directed the Graduate Program in Developmental Biology from 1986 to 2009. She also helped create an online database with a software engineer, Jonathan Scoles. This database describes all the genetically changed mice at UCSF.
This online tool helps researchers find out if certain mice are available. It also tells them whom to contact to get these mice. This has saved scientists a lot of time and money. It has also encouraged scientists to work together more often.
Awards and Honors
Gail Martin has received many awards for her important work. Some of these include:
- An American Cancer Society Faculty Research Award (1979–83)
- A Guggenheim Fellowship (1991–92)
- The Edwin Grant Conklin Medal (2002)
- The Pearl Meister Greengard Prize (2007)
- The FASEB Excellence in Science Award (2011)
She also received an honorary doctorate degree from University College London in 2011. She has given many special lectures around the world. She was also the President of the Society for Developmental Biology from 2006 to 2007. She was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1991), the US National Academy of Sciences (2002), and a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (2015).
