£2m bequest from scientist

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.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

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.