Barbara Ramsay Shaw is the William T. Miller Distinguished Emeritus Professor of

Chemistry Chemistry is the science, scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the Chemical element, elements that make up matter to the chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions ...

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

. She is known for her work on how DNA reacts with other compounds.

Education and career

Shaw earned her B.A. from

Bryn Mawr College Bryn Mawr College ( ; Welsh: ) is a women's liberal arts college in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Founded as a Quaker institution in 1885, Bryn Mawr is one of the Seven Sister colleges, a group of elite, historically women's colleges in the United St ...

in 1965. She has an M.S. (1967) and a Ph.D. in physical chemistry (1973) from the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

. Her Ph.D. advisors were Michael Schurr, professor of chemistry at the University of Washington and

Walter Kauzmann Walter J. Kauzmann (18 August 1916 – 27 January 2009) was an American chemist and professor emeritus of Princeton University. He was noted for his work in both physical chemistry and biochemistry. His most important contribution was recognizin ...

, professor of chemistry and member of the National Academy of Sciences at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

. Shaw received her post-doctoral training from Kensal van Holde, professor of biochemistry and member of the National Academy of Sciences at

Oregon State University Oregon State University (OSU) is a public land-grant, research university in Corvallis, Oregon. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate-degree programs along with a variety of graduate and doctoral degrees. It has the 10th largest engineering co ...

. In 1975 Shaw moved to Duke University as an assistant professor, and by 1992 she had been promoted to full professor. In 2006 Shaw was named the William T Miller Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at Duke University.

Research

In her graduate work, Shaw synthesized peptide sequences using solid phase synthesis. Shaw learned this technique from Bruce Merrifield at Rockefeller University. Merrifield won the 1984 Nobel Prize for his work. Shaw studied the spontaneous formation of helix coils in her peptide sequences using optical rotatory dispersion. Shaw is known for her later work on boranophosphates. While a postdoctoral researcher at Oregon State she helped establish the structure of the

nucleosome A nucleosome is the basic structural unit of DNA packaging in eukaryotes. The structure of a nucleosome consists of a segment of DNA wound around eight histone proteins and resembles thread wrapped around a spool. The nucleosome is the fundamen ...

. She has studied the chemical reactivity of DNA, and applied synthetic chemistry to

gene In biology, the word gene (from , ; "...Wilhelm Johannsen coined the word gene to describe the Mendelian units of heredity..." meaning ''generation'' or ''birth'' or ''gender'') can have several different meanings. The Mendelian gene is a ba ...

expression,

signal transduction Signal transduction is the process by which a chemical or physical signal is transmitted through a cell as a series of molecular events, most commonly protein phosphorylation catalyzed by protein kinases, which ultimately results in a cellula ...

, and cancer treatment.

Awards and honors

Shaw was the first recipient from Duke University of the Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award. In 1987, the YWCA in North Carolina named Shaw as one of their "women of achievement". Shaw was known for her teaching. Among her students was Paul Farmer, professor at Harvard Medical School and founder of Partners in Health. Farmer called her "the most inspiring professor I ever had". Shaw's large research group included students from Russia, the Middle East, and China.

Selected publications

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References

External links

Shaw's Duke page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shaw, Barbara Ramsay Duke University faculty 21st-century American chemists Living people American women chemists Year of birth missing (living people) American women academics Bryn Mawr College alumni University of Washington alumni 21st-century American women scientists