Former NIH Molecular Biologist Singer Remembered

Dr. Maxine Singer, in Masur Auditorium during NIH Research Festival 2010 for a memorial tribute to Nobelist Dr. Marshall Nirenberg.

Dr. Maxine Singer, president emerita of Carnegie Science and scientist emerita at NIH, died July 9 at age 93. In her more than 40-year formal association with NIH, Singer made a lasting impact in nearly every area of the agency’s conduct of fundamental research as well as its administration and scientific workforce recruitment.

“Maxine Singer was the consummate scientist’s scientist,” noted NIH Director Dr. Monica Bertagnolli. “In addition to making research advances as a principal investigator in her own NIH lab and in the lab of other renowned NIH investigators over several decades, she made significant contributions to crucial areas of science policy that continue to guide the ethical conduct of vital research today.”

Singer joined NIH in 1956 as a new postdoctoral fellow. She’d been recruited from Yale by legendary NIH investigator Dr. Leon Heppel, a lab chief in what was then the National Institute of Arthritis, Metabolism and Digestive Diseases (NIAMDD) who was one of the few people in the United States at the time working in chemistry and biochemistry of nucleic acids.

Within a year and a half, Singer had her own independent NIAMD lab, where she conducted studies with a small group in the emerging field of nucleic acid research until 1975. That’s when the National Cancer Institute’s Laboratory of Biochemistry (LB) lured her to the other end of the same ninth floor corridor of the Clinical Center to lead the nucleic acid enzymology section. She rose to LB chief in 1980.

Early days of the molecular biologist in an NIH lab.

“As chief of the Laboratory of Biochemistry in NCI, she built a world class program through her own research and her ability to recognize and recruit outstanding scientists,” said Dr. Michael Gottesman, chief of NCI’s Laboratory of Cell Biology and former NIH deputy director for intramural research. “Her role in enabling Marshall Nirenberg’s synthesis of nucleotides for his Nobel Prize-winning work elucidating the genetic code was absolutely critical.” 

One of Singer’s recruits, NIH Scientist Emeritus Dr. Michael Lichten, retired chief of NCI’s Laboratory of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, recalled, “By the time I arrived, the Laboratory of Biochemistry was a model for a diverse program of investigator-initiated research programs. Maxine’s broad scientific interests, and her belief that good science was best done when investigators had the freedom to follow their imagination, were responsible.”

Singer brought Dr. Carl Wu to LB as an independent investigator in 1982 and he remained there for 30 years. 

“A key attraction of the laboratory was Maxine’s academic philosophy of encouraging young investigators to pursue problems of fundamental significance with complete freedom and long-term funding for a small group,” said Wu, Bloomberg distinguished professor at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. “That philosophy, initially held by very few department heads at NIH, later became formalized as the Tenure-Track Investigator Program by NIH Director Harold Varmus, resulting in the continuing infusion of the best young scientists into the intramural community. As our lab chief and authority on nucleic acids, Maxine always provided guidance, insightful scientific critique, and wise managerial advice and support.”

In 1973, Singer co-led the Gordon Conference, where announcement of the first recombinant DNA experiment began a public debate about the safety of such experiments. As co–chair, she was one of the people who made the matter public and asked the National Academy of Sciences to undertake investigation of people’s concerns about those experiments.

Singer was a lead organizer, with former Stanford professor and Nobel Laureate Dr. Paul Berg, of the 1975 Asilomar Conference on Recombinant DNA to discuss the potential biohazards and regulation of biotechnology. The meeting of more than 140 biologists, physicians and lawyers resulted in development of voluntary guidelines to ensure the safety of recombinant DNA technology.

Singer, at a meeting called by NIH Director Dr. Donald Fredrickson on Feb. 19, 1977, to inform the scientific community and the media of legislation pending in Congress that was designed to regulate recombinant DNA research

The conference also brought more public attention to medical research and its conduct and is credited as an example of scientists joining together, acting preemptively to protect societal interests while simultaneously advancing knowledge in an important field.

In 1988, Singer left NIH to become president of what was then-the Carnegie Institution, where she served until 2002. She maintained her lab at NCI until 1997.

Another aspect of Singer’s influence that has been underemphasized, Lichten continued, “is Maxine’s breadth as an author. In addition to authoring three texts on genes and genomes with Paul Berg, she also coauthored with Paul an outstanding—and in my opinion, greatly unappreciated—biography, George Beadle: An Uncommon Farmer [2005] and a book on flower formation, Blossoms, and the Genes that Make Them [2018].”

Former colleagues suggest it was her ability to approach issues from multiple perspectives that sealed her legacy as a research collaborator and thought leader.

“Science thrives under conditions where individuals of talent and skill have real independence,” Singer observed in a 1998 interview for an oral history of NCI.