Presentation about

Jacqueline K. Barton

Biography
Jacqueline K. Barton is born May 7, 1952 in New York City. She is an American chemist. She is the Arthur and Marian Hanisch Memorial professor of Chemistry at Califormia Institute of Technology.

 Jacqueline K. Barton (b. 1952) probes DNA by shooting electrons through it. Using custombuilt molecules to direct these electrical currents, she can locate genes, see how they are arranged, and scan them for damage. Her techniques may lead to new ways to diagnose diseases and treat them through DNA repair. To further this end, she cofounded GeneOhm Sciences in 2001, which became part of Becton, Dickinson and Company in 2006.

 Barton first became interested in DNA during graduate school. She has since spent her career studying the electrical conductivity of DNA. She was among the first to demonstrate this strange property, and no one knows if it helps DNA carry out its job of carrying genetic information. Barton is hoping to find answers to this question.

 Barton has also shown that certain damaged DNA molecules do not conduct electricity. Since damaged DNA can cause many kinds of cancer, she hopes that her discovery will eventually help doctors detect damaged DNA before cancer results. In addition Barton has investigated how some metal compounds (called complexes) interact with DNA molecules. Evidence suggests that metal complexes can be used to repair damaged DNA.

 Among her many honors, Barton was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2002.

By Iva Aleksandrova

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