Ruth Sager
Ruth Sager | |
|---|---|
| Born | February 7, 1918 |
| Died | March 29, 1997 (aged 79) Brookline, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Education | University of Chicago Rutgers University Columbia University |
| Known for | Pioneering cytoplasmic genetics |
| Awards | Gilbert Morgan Smith Medal (1988) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Genetics, extranuclear inheritance |
| Institutions | Rockefeller Institute, Columbia University, Hunter College, Harvard Medical School, Dana–Farber Cancer Institute |
| Doctoral advisor | Marcus Morton Rhoades |
Ruth Sager (February 7, 1918 – March 29, 1997) was an American plant geneticist, cell physiologist and cancer researcher. 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. Her second career began in the early 1970s and was in cancer genetics; she proposed and investigated the roles of tumor suppressor genes.