Mary Ellen Jones (chemist)

Mary Ellen Jones
Born (1922-12-25)December 25, 1922
La Grange Park, Illinois
Died August 23, 1996(1996-08-23) (aged 73)
Waltham, Massachusetts
Nationality American
Fields Biochemistry
Institutions University of North Carolina
Alma mater University of Chicago, Yale University

Mary Ellen Jones (December 25, 1922 – August 23, 1996) was an American biochemist.[1][2] She was notable for discovery of carbamoyl phosphate, a chemical substance that is key to the biosynthesis of arginine and urea.[2] Jones was the first woman to hold a chair at the University of North Carolina, and the first woman to become a department chair at the medical school.[2] She was a member of the National Academy of Sciences.[2] She was also president of the Association of Medical School Departments of Biochemistry, president of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and president of the American Association of University Professors.[2] The New York Times called her a "crucial researcher on DNA" and said that her studies laid the foundation for basic cancer research.[1] Ironically, she herself died of cancer, on August 23, 1996.[1]

Early life

Mary Ellen Jones was born in La Grange Park, Illinois, on December 12, 1922.[2] Her parents were Elmer and Laura Klein Jones.[2]

Education

While an undergraduate at the University of Chicago, she began to work part-time for Armour and Company. She continued to work for them full-time after she earned her bachelor's degree in biochemistry from the University of Chicago in 1944. There she worked with Paul Munson, director of the research laboratory, publishing on androsterone and monopalmitin.

In 1948, Jones and Munson were married, Munson became an assistant professor of pharmacology at Yale, and Jones entered the graduate program at Yale University. At Yale, she worked with Joseph S. Fruton, husband of chemist Sofia Simmonds. Jones' dissertation research involved the catalytic properties of cathepsin C, a type of protease. Jones completed her studies in three years receiving her doctorate in 1951.[2] Her doctorate was entitled: Transamidation reactions catalyzed by cathepsin C.[3]

Academic work

Jones moved to Boston with her husband in 1951, where she obtained a postdoctoral position to do research at Massachusetts General Hospital. There she worked with Fritz Lipmann from 1951 to 1957.[2] Her work at Mass General with Lipmann and Leonard Spector included the discovery of carbamyl phosphate, a key component of nucleotides which are essential to energy transfer within cells.[4][5]

When the graduate Department of Biochemistry at Brandeis University was established in 1957, she joined it as an assistant professor, and was later promoted to associate professor.[2] She and Spector continued to work on carbamyl phosphate, identifying carbon dioxide or bicarbonate as the source for the initial activation step for carbamyl phosphate formation.[4] Jones also suspected that there were two separate carbamyl-phosphate synthetase isozymes, and in 1966 she published research with Sally E. Hagar identifying one that required glutamine for the synthesis of orotate. Jones and Hagar were able to find a way to stabilize the enzyme so that it could be studied.[4]

In addition to studying amino acid metabolism, Jones was also active in studying pyrimidine nucleotide metabolism.[6] She was one of the first researchers to study multifunctional proteins[7] working with the enzymes dihydroorotate synthase and uridine monophosphate synthase.[8]

Mary Ellen Jones moved with her husband to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1966, as an associate professor. Space in the biochemistry department was limited, and Jones had to make do with room the basement of the zoology department.[2] In 1971, Jones, now divorced, left for a seven-year stint at the University of Southern California School of Medicine.[2]

In 1978 Mary Ellen Jones returned to North Carolina as chairwoman of the Department of Biochemistry at the University of North Carolina. She resigned as chairwoman in 1989, but remained active in research and teaching until early in 1995.[2]

In 1997, Mary Ellen Jones was recognized for her many contributions to UNC as a "scientist, humanist, and warrior in the struggle for gender equality in science" when the university chose to name a building after her. "Mary Ellen was a paragon whose personal and scientific leadership shaped much of the basic research education at this institution," according to Dr. Stuart Bondurant.[9]

Overall, her research into DNA, RNA, and mechanisms of metabolic pathways helped people to understand how cells divide and differentiate, which in turn helped researchers to understand the action of cancer cells.[6]

Notable Awards and Distinctions

References

  1. 1 2 3 New York Times:Mary Ellen Jones, 73, Crucial Researcher on DNA, By HENRY FOUNTAIN, September 7, 1996
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 Thomas R. Traut (2001). "Mary Ellen Jones". Biographical Memoirs. 79. National Academies Press. pp. 183–201. ISBN 978-0-309-07572-5.
  3. ↑ Jones, Mary Ellen. Transamidation Reactions Catalyzed by Cathepsin C. Yale University, 1952.
  4. 1 2 3 Kresge, Nicole; Simoni, Robert D.; Hill, Robert L. (May 11, 2007). "Carbamyl Phosphate Biosynthesis: the Work of Mary Ellen Jones". The Journal of Biological Chemistry. 282 (e14). Retrieved 27 March 2014.
  5. ↑ Jones, M. E.; Spector, L.; Lipmann, F. (February 1955). "CARBAMYL PHOSPHATE, THE CARBAMYL DONOR IN ENZYMATIC CITRULLINE SYNTHESIS". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 77 (3): 819–820. doi:10.1021/ja01608a101. Retrieved 27 March 2014.
  6. 1 2 Wayne, Tiffany K. (2011). American women of science since 1900. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO. pp. 557–558. ISBN 9781598841589.
  7. ↑ Bailey, Martha J. (1994). American women in science : [prior to 1950 American women scientists] : a biographical dictionary ([2. Aufl.]. ed.). Denver, Colo. [u.a.]: ABC-Clio. ISBN 0874367409.
  8. ↑ "ASBMB Past Presidents: 1986 Mary Ellen Jones". American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Retrieved 27 March 2014.
  9. ↑ Anthony, Melissa (April 18, 1997). "Ceremony to mark renaming building for Dr. Mary Ellen Jones". UNC Medical Center. Retrieved 27 March 2014.
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