Ruth Sager
{{short description|American geneticist}}
{{distinguish|Ruth Sanger}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name = Ruth Sager
| image = Ruth Sager yearbook.jpg
| birth_date = February 7, 1918
| birth_place = Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
| death_date = {{death date and age|1997|3|29|1918|2|7}}
| death_place = Brookline, Massachusetts, U.S.
| field = Genetics, extranuclear inheritance
| work_institutions = Rockefeller Institute, Columbia University, Hunter College, Harvard Medical School, Dana–Farber Cancer Institute
| education = University of Chicago
Rutgers University
Columbia University
| doctoral_advisor = Marcus Morton Rhoades
| known_for = Pioneering cytoplasmic genetics
| awards = Gilbert Morgan Smith Medal (1988)
}}
Ruth Sager (February 7, 1918 – March 29, 1997) was an American plant geneticist, cell physiologist and cancer researcher.{{cite news |date=April 10, 1997 |url=http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/1997/04.10/RuthSagerHMSGen.html |title=Ruth Sager, HMS Geneticist, Dies |newspaper=Harvard Gazette |access-date=February 21, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120205180527/http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/1997/04.10/RuthSagerHMSGen.html |archive-date=February 5, 2012 }} In the 1950s and 1960s she pioneered the field of cytoplasmic genetics by discovering transmission of genetic traits through chloroplast DNA, the first known example of genetics not involving the cell nucleus. The academic community did not acknowledge the significance of her contribution until after the second wave of feminism in the 1970s.Oakes, Elizabeth. International Encyclopedia of Women Scientists. 2002. Facts on File. Her second career began in the early 1970s and was in cancer genetics; she proposed and investigated the roles of tumor suppressor genes.
Early life and education
Ruth Sager was born in Chicago on February 7, 1918, the only child of Leon B. Sager, an advertising executive, and Deborah Borovik Sager. Her mother died from the influenza epidemic in March 1919. Her widowed father married Hannah Shulman and had two more daughters, Esther and Naomi. At age 16, Ruth graduated from New Trier High School.[https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/science-and-technology/genetics-and-genetic-engineering-biographies/ruth-sager “Sager, Ruth”] by Gail K. Schmitt, Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography, updated May 21, 2018, Encyclopedia.com.
She then enrolled at the University of Chicago with plans to study liberal arts and major in English. A physiology course taught by Anton Carlson awakened her interest in biology. Since she enjoyed her science classes the most, Sager switched her major to biology, aiming to attend medical school. She earned her Bachelor of Science degree in 1938 and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.[https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/science-and-technology/genetics-and-genetic-engineering-biographies/ruth-sager “Sager, Ruth”] by Gail K. Schmitt, Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography, updated May 21, 2018, Encyclopedia.com.
=Middle East connection=
Aiming to give their three daughters a wide-ranging education, Sager’s parents took them on a trip through Europe and the Middle East from February to May 1938. While in Palestine, Sager visited a kibbutz, whose members’ self-sufficiency in creating a life in the desert impressed her. She wanted to return to Palestine, but ran into harsh emigration restrictions. Over the next few years, she spent time working on several American training farms of Hashomer Hatzair, a Zionist movement for young secular Jews. While doing so, she became interested in the scientific aspects of desert farming.[https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/science-and-technology/genetics-and-genetic-engineering-biographies/ruth-sager “Sager, Ruth”] by Gail K. Schmitt, Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography, updated May 21, 2018, Encyclopedia.com.
=Graduate studies=
Attending graduate school at Rutgers University, Sager opted for scientific research instead of medical practice. She carried out wartime research on the growth of tomato seedlings, receiving her M.S. in plant physiology in October 1944 with a thesis on the mineral nutrition of tomato plants.{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/biographicaldict00ogil_0|title=The biographical dictionary of women in science : pioneering lives from ancient times to the mid-20th century|date=2000|publisher=Routledge|editor=Ogilvie, Marilyn Bailey|editor2=Harvey, Joy Dorothy|editor-link=Marilyn Bailey Ogilvie|editor2-link=Joy Harvey|isbn=0415920388|location=New York|oclc=40776839}} She spent the next academic year working on the horticulture department farm at the [https://agnr.umd.edu/about/agnr-history/ University of Maryland].[https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/science-and-technology/genetics-and-genetic-engineering-biographies/ruth-sager “Sager, Ruth”] by Gail K. Schmitt, Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography, updated May 21, 2018, Encyclopedia.com.
Sager’s wartime correspondence with Seymour Melman, an army officer stationed in California, led to their marriage in 1944. Both were accepted at Columbia University, where they began their graduate studies in 1945. Sager studied maize (corn) genetics under Marcus Rhoades, sometimes doing fieldwork for Barbara McClintock, who served as a reader of Sager’s dissertation.[https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/science-and-technology/genetics-and-genetic-engineering-biographies/ruth-sager “Sager, Ruth”] by Gail K. Schmitt, Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography, updated May 21, 2018, Encyclopedia.com. Sager earned her PhD in 1948.
Sager and Melman divorced in 1960. In 1973, Sager married Arthur Pardee.
Research and career
Sager was awarded a Merck Fellowship from the National Research Council in 1949, and worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the Rockefeller Institute on the chloroplast from 1949 to 1951 in the laboratory of Sam Granick.{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/americanwomensci00moir|title=American women scientists : 23 inspiring biographies, 1900-2000|last=Davison.|first=Reynolds, Moira|date=2004|publisher=McFarland|isbn=9780786421619|location=Jefferson, N.C.|oclc=60686608}} She was promoted to a staff position (assistant in the biochemistry division) in 1951, working in this capacity until 1955, using the alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii as a model organism.{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/notablewomenscie00pame|title=Notable women scientists|date=1999|publisher=Gale Group|others=Proffitt, Pamela, 1966-|isbn=9780787639006|location=Detroit|oclc=41628188}} She performed breeding experiments with the algae, mating strains that were resistant to the chloroplast inhibiting agent streptomycin with strains that were streptomycin-sensitive. Unlike what would be expected if the trait were passed down following traditional Mendelian inheritance, she found that the offspring only showed the streptomycin sensitivity/resistance trait of one of their parents. This research provided evidence for non-Mendelian uniparental inheritance; it also showed that there are multiple independent genetic systems in Chlamydomonas.{{cite news |url=http://www.news.Harvard.edu/gazette/2004/11.04/16-mm.html |title=Ruth Sager: Faculty of Medicine - Memorial Minute |newspaper=Harvard Gazette |date=November 4, 2004 |access-date=February 21, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120208082903/http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2004/11.04/16-mm.html |archive-date=February 8, 2012 }} She found further evidence when she mapped the streptomycin sensitivity/resistance trait and found a stable, nonchromosomal inheritance system that she proposed may have arisen before chromosomes. She was the first person to publish extensive genetic mapping of a cellular organelle.
She joined Columbia University's zoology department as a research associate in 1955, supported by funding from the United States Public Health Service and the National Science Foundation. She was promoted to senior research associate in the early 1960s, but she had difficulty obtaining a faculty position due to initial skepticism surrounding cytoplasmic inheritance from the scientific community, as well as gender discrimination.{{Cite book|title=Beyond the gene : cytoplasmic inheritance and the struggle for authority in genetics|last=Jan.|first=Sapp|date=1987|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=0195042069|location=New York|oclc=236342637}} It wasn't until 1966, 18 years after receiving her doctorate, that Hunter College invited her to be a professor of biology.
Sager changed her research focus to cancer biology in the 1970s, with a specific focus on breast cancer, and spent time researching at London's Imperial Cancer Research Fund Laboratory from 1972 to 1973, where she met her future husband, Arthur Pardee. In 1975 she joined the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at Harvard Medical School as a professor of cellular genetics, where she served as chief of the Division of Cancer Genetics at the affiliated Dana–Farber Cancer Institute. Her research there focused on the genetic and molecular causes of cancer, including investigation of the roles of tumor suppressor genes, DNA methylation, and chromosomal instability in tumor growth and spread. Sager was one of the first people to emphasize the importance of such genes. She identified over 100 potential tumor suppressor genes and performed extensive research into a specific tumor suppressor gene called maspin (mammary serine protease inhibitor) She developed cell culture methods to study normal and cancerous human and other mammalian cells in the laboratory and pioneered the research into “expression genetics,” the study of altered gene expression.[https://www.nasonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/sager-ruth.pdf “Ruth Sager 1918–1997: A Biographical Memoir”] by Arthur Pardee. National Academy Press, Biographical Memoirs, vol. 80, 2001, p. 9.
{{Quote box
| quote = For more than half a century she demonstrated vision, insight and determination to develop novel scientific concepts in the face of established dogmas. Her pioneering research and original ideas continue to make contributions to biology
|author = Mary J.C. Hendrix
|width = 40%
|align = right
|qalign = center
|salign = left
}}
She was elected a fellow of the National Academy of Sciences in 1977,[https://www.nasonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/sager-ruth.pdf “Ruth Sager 1918–1997: A Biographical Memoir”] by Arthur Pardee. National Academy Press, Biographical Memoirs, vol. 80, 2001, pp. 5 & 6. and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1979.[https://www.amacad.org/sites/default/files/academy/multimedia/pdfs/publications/bookofmembers/ChapterS.pdf Members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences: 1780-2017], p. 519. In 1988 Sagar was awarded the Gilbert Morgan Smith Medal from the National Academy of Sciences.{{cite web|title=Gilbert Morgan Smith Medal|url=http://www.nasonline.org/site/PageServer?pagename=AWARDS_gmsmith|publisher=National Academy of Sciences|access-date=16 February 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110210141836/http://www.nasonline.org/site/PageServer?pagename=AWARDS_gmsmith|archive-date=10 February 2011}}
Sager published two classic textbooks: Cell Heredity (1961), co-written by Francis Ryan and considered by some to be the first molecular biology textbook; and Cytoplasmic Genes and Organelles (1972).
Death
Sager died of bladder cancer in Brookline, Massachusetts in 1997.
Selected honors and awards
- Guggenheim Fellowship, 1972.{{cite web|last=Pardee|first=Arthur|title=Ruth Sager 1918-1997|url=http://www.nasonline.org/publications/biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/sager-ruth.pdf|publisher=National Academy of Science|access-date=27 Mar 2014}}
- Elected fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, 1977.[https://www.nasonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/sager-ruth.pdf “Ruth Sager 1918–1997: A Biographical Memoir”] by Arthur Pardee. National Academy Press, Biographical Memoirs, vol. 80, 2001, pp. 5 & 6.
- Elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1979.[https://www.amacad.org/sites/default/files/academy/multimedia/pdfs/publications/bookofmembers/ChapterS.pdf Members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences: 1780-2017], p. 519.
- Outstanding Investigator Award, National Cancer Institute, 1985.
- Gilbert Morgan Smith Medal, National Academy of Sciences, 1988.
- Princess Takamatso Lecturer in Japan, 1990.
- Alumna of the Year, University of Chicago, 1994.
Selected publications
- {{Cite book|title=Cell Heredity|last=Sager|first=Ruth|last2=Ryan|first2=Francis J.|publisher=Wiley|year=1961|location=New York}}
- {{Cite book|title=Cytoplasmic Genes and Organelles|last=Sager|first=Ruth|publisher=Academic Press|year=1972}}
Reference Notes
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/science-and-technology/genetics-and-genetic-engineering-biographies/ruth-sager “Sager, Ruth”] by Gail K. Schmitt, Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography, updated May 21, 2018, Encyclopedia.com.
- [https://www.nasonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/sager-ruth.pdf “Ruth Sager 1918–1997: A Biographical Memoir”] by Arthur Pardee. National Academy Press, Biographical Memoirs, vol. 80, 2001, pp. 3-15.
{{Authority control}}
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Category:Scientists from Brookline, Massachusetts
Category:University of Chicago alumni
Category:Rutgers University alumni
Category:Columbia University alumni
Category:Hunter College faculty
Category:Harvard Medical School faculty
Category:Deaths from bladder cancer in the United States
Category:Deaths from cancer in Massachusetts
Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Category:American women molecular biologists
Category:American molecular biologists
Category:20th-century American women