Obituary: Prof Noreen Elizabeth Murray CBE FRS FRSE, 76

A PROFESSOR who played a major role in the development of gene cloning technology has died aged 76.

Prof Noreen Elizabeth Murray CBE FRS FRSE, who was born as Noreen Parker on February 26, 1935, passed away on May 12. She was brought up in the village of Burnley, Lancashire, and from the age of five in Bolton-le-Sands.

She moved to Edinburgh in 1968 when she took up a post in the MRC Unit of molecular genetics at Edinburgh University.

Growing up, she spent much of her time outdoors playing tennis, cycling and swimming. She loved to climb trees and to help her father, who was a headmaster, in the garden.

Prof Murray's brother, John Parker, also had a strong green influence. In her fifth form at school, Prof Murray studied physics and chemistry as biology was not an option at that stage. Instead, her sibling taught her the subject,

She went on to obtain a BSc in botany at King's College London, then moved on to a PhD at the University of Birmingham, where she studied genetics of the fungus Neurospora.

While in Birmingham, she met her husband, Kenneth Murray, who was studying for a PhD in chemistry. They married in 1958 and went on to work closely together.

Prof Murray continued her Neurospora work during the five years as a postdoctoral researcher with David Perkins at Stanford University, California.

After that she went to work in the Botany School, Cambridge, and was shocked that her degrees were not recognised by Cambridge University. She was expected to work for a Cambridge PhD and, during her sixth year as a postdoctoral researcher, she appeared on the photograph of the Cambridge PhD students.

The next stop was Edinburgh, where Prof Murray took up a genetics post at the university. She chose to study the phenomenon of restriction-modification in bacteria, using her knowledge of bacteriophage genetics. Her husband began to determine short DNA sequences of the lambda genome.

The couple were among the first to realise that the ability to cut DNA with restriction enxymes opened up the possibility of joining together different DNA molecules that had been cut in this way, and thereby clone DNA sequences.

She continued her breakthrough work throughout the 1970s and 1980s, supported by scholarly exploration of the biochemical and genetic properties.

Prof Murray sat on many committees and in 1988, she was promoted to a personal chair as Professor of Molecular Genetics.

Her many contributions to science have been honoured by fellowships and honorary DScs.

Prof Murray, who had no children, is survived by her husband and brother, who lives in Australia.