£2m bequest from scientist

Published on 21/07/2012 12:00

A LEADING scientist from Edinburgh University who died after a battle with motor neurone disease has left £2 million to help fund research into the condition.

Molecular geneticist Professor Noreen Murray died last year aged 76, leaving an estate worth £9 million.

In the early 1970s, she and her husband, Sir Kenneth Murray, led the development of genetic engineering.

The couple also helped to develop the first vaccination against hepatitis B approved for use in humans.

Their work put Edinburgh and the UK at the head of a revolution in scientific research.

Mrs Murray was born in Read, near Burnley in Lancashire, in 1935 and grew up in Bolton le Sands. She left the £2m to the Royal Society in London.