Monica Riley
{{short description|American scientist}}
{{Infobox scientist
|name = Monica Riley
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|birth_date = {{birth year|1926}}
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|death_date = {{Death date and age|2013|10|11|1926}}
|death_place = Richmond, California
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|citizenship = American
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|known_for = Messenger RNA, Escherichia coli genome
|work_institutions = University of California Davis, Stony Brook University, Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole
|alma_mater = Smith College, University of California Berkeley
| thesis_title = Selective destruction of genetic material and its effect on ¹-galactosidase synthesis in Escherichia coli
| thesis_url = https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/{{{906224871}}}
| thesis_year = 1960
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Monica Riley (1926 – October 11, 2013) was an American scientist who contributed to the discovery of messenger RNA in her Ph.D work with Arthur Pardee, and was later a pioneer in the exploration and computer representation of the Escherichia coli genome.
Career
After graduating from Smith College with a chemistry degree in 1947, she studied Biochemistry at University of California Berkeley with Pardee.{{cite news | title= Genomics Pioneer Dies | author-last = Olena |author-first=Abby | date= November 7, 2013 | work = The Scientist | url = http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/38216/title/Genomics-Pioneer-Dies/ }}{{cite web | author-last = Serres | author-first = Greta | title = Monica Riley (1926 - 2013)|website=Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole |url= http://www.mbl.edu/jbpc/mriley/ | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150415212212/http://www.mbl.edu/jbpc/mriley/ | archive-date = 2015-04-15 }} Her Ph.D. work, together with the PaJaMo experiment, ruled out ribosomes as carriers of information to synthesize protein, leading to the discovery of messenger RNA.{{cite book | author-last= Crick |author-first= Francis | title = What Mad Pursuit | url= https://archive.org/details/whatmadpursuit00fran | url-access= registration | year = 1988 | pages = [https://archive.org/details/whatmadpursuit00fran/page/118 118–119] |publisher= Basic Books |isbn= 9780465091379 }} After holding faculty positions at University of California Davis and Stony Brook University, she moved to the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, staying there until age 80.
As a senior scientist at MBL she was one of the four founding faculty members of the Josephine Bay Paul Center for Comparative Molecular Biology and Evolution led by Mitchell Sogin.{{Cite web|url=https://www.mbl.edu/jbpc/mriley/|title=Monica Riley (1926 – 2013)|date=2013-10-29|website=The Bay Paul Center|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210128092132/https://www.mbl.edu/jbpc/mriley/ |access-date=2023-02-21|archive-date=2021-01-28 }} During this time, she co-founded the EcoCyc database of Escherichia coli metabolism,{{cite journal | title= EcoCyc: an encyclopedia of Escherichia coli genes and metabolism | journal = Nucleic Acids Research | volume = 24 | issue = 1 | pages = 32–39 | pmid = 8594595 | last1=Karp | first1= Peter | last2 = Riley | first2 = Monica | last3 = Paley | first3 = Suzanne M. | last4 = Pelligrini-Toole | first4 = Alida | year = 1996 | doi=10.1093/nar/24.1.32 | pmc=145574}} leading the curation of metabolic pathways and genome information for Escherichia coli for over a decade,{{Cite journal|last=Riley|first=M.|date=2006-01-08|title=Escherichia coli K-12: a cooperatively developed annotation snapshot--2005|journal=Nucleic Acids Research|language=en|volume=34|issue=1|pages=1–9|doi=10.1093/nar/gkj405|issn=0305-1048|pmc=1325200|pmid=16397293}} and developed classification systems for genes and proteins (including MultiFun), which were forerunners of gene ontology.
Selected publications
- {{Cite journal |ref=none|last=Blattner|first=F. R.|date=1997-09-05|title=The Complete Genome Sequence of Escherichia coli K-12|journal=Science|volume=277|issue=5331|pages=1453–1462|doi=10.1126/science.277.5331.1453|pmid=9278503|doi-access=}}
- {{Cite journal |ref=none|last=Riley|first=M.|date=2006-01-08|title=Escherichia coli K-12: a cooperatively developed annotation snapshot--2005|url=https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkj405|journal=Nucleic Acids Research|volume=34|issue=1|pages=1–9|doi=10.1093/nar/gkj405|issn=0305-1048|pmc=1325200|pmid=16397293}}
- {{Cite journal |ref=none|last=Karp|first=P. D.|date=2002-01-01|title=The EcoCyc Database|journal=Nucleic Acids Research|volume=30|issue=1|pages=56–58|doi=10.1093/nar/30.1.56|pmc=99147|pmid=11752253}}
- {{Cite journal |ref=none|last=Riley|first=M|date=1993-12-01|title=Functions of the gene products of Escherichia coli|journal=Microbiological Reviews|volume=57|issue=4|pages=862–952|doi=10.1128/mr.57.4.862-952.1993|pmid=7508076|pmc=372942|doi-access=free}}
References
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Category:American women biochemists
Category:University of California, Berkeley alumni
Category:University of California, Davis faculty
Category:Stony Brook University faculty