Naomi Datta, FRS (''née'' Goddard; 17 September 1922 – 30 November 2008) was a distinguished British

geneticist A geneticist is a biologist or physician who studies genetics, the science of genes, heredity, and variation of organisms. A geneticist can be employed as a scientist or a lecturer. Geneticists may perform general research on genetic processe ...

. Working at

Hammersmith Hospital Hammersmith Hospital, formerly the Military Orthopaedic Hospital, and later the Special Surgical Hospital, is a major teaching hospital in White City, West London. It is part of Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust in the London Borough of H ...

in the 1950s and early 1960s, she identified

horizontal gene transfer Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) or lateral gene transfer (LGT) is the movement of genetic material between Unicellular organism, unicellular and/or multicellular organisms other than by the ("vertical") transmission of DNA from parent to offsprin ...

as a source of multi-antibiotic resistance in

bacteria Bacteria (; singular: bacterium) are ubiquitous, mostly free-living organisms often consisting of one biological cell. They constitute a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria were among ...

Research history

After qualifying in medicine in 1946, Datta joined the

Public Health Laboratory Public health laboratories (PHLs) are governmental reference laboratories that protect the public against diseases and other health hazards. The 2005 International Health Regulations came into force in June 2007, with 196 binding countries that rec ...

Service as a bacteriologist and worked here for ten years. She then worked at the

Royal Postgraduate Medical School The Royal Postgraduate Medical School (RPMS) was an independent medical school, based primarily at Hammersmith Hospital in west London. In 1988, the school merged with the Institute of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, and in 1997 became part of Imperial ...

at Hammersmith Hospital for almost three decades, joining as a lecturer in 1957 and later becoming professor of microbial genetics. It was here that she made a significant breakthrough by demonstrating that antibiotic resistance could be transmitted between bacteria, the first time this had been shown outside Japan. In 1959 there was a severe outbreak of ''Salmonella typhimurium'' phage-type 27 and, as part of her research at Hammersmith Hospital, Datta examined 309 cultures to see if the strain was unaltered after moving through hosts. 25 of the 309 were found to be drug-resistant, eight of which were resistant to Streptomycin which had been used to treat the patients. Notably, Datta observed that earlier cultures of the salmonella typhimurium infection (from the start of the outbreak) were not drug-resistant, so it seemed that the antibiotic resistance had developed over time. Datta published these findings in 1960, in the paper ''An outbreak of infection with Salmonella typhimurium in a general hospital'', and later in 1962 in the paper ''Transmissible drug resistance in an epidemic strain of Salmonella typhimurium'' in the Journal of Hygiene. In later years she published many important studies on the occurrence and significance of drug resistance plasmids in enterobacterial infections. For example, Dr. Datta co-authored (with Royston C. Clowes, Stanley Cohen,

Roy Curtiss Roy is a masculine given name and a family surname with varied origin. In Anglo-Norman England, the name derived from the Norman ''roy'', meaning "king", while its Old French cognate, ''rey'' or ''roy'' (modern ''roi''), likewise gave rise to ...

III,

Stanley Falkow Stanley "Stan" Falkow (January 24, 1934 – May 5, 2018) was an American microbiologist and a professor of microbiology at Georgetown University, University of Washington, and Stanford University School of Medicine. Falkow is known as the father ...

and Richard Novick) a proposal for uniform nomenclature for bacterial plasmids. She also made distinguished contributions to research on the molecular biology of R factors, and she pioneered the classification of R factors and other plasmids by their incompatibilities. She found that some resistance genes, including those for

gentamicin Gentamicin is an antibiotic used to treat several types of bacterial infections. This may include bone infections, endocarditis, pelvic inflammatory disease, meningitis, pneumonia, urinary tract infections, and sepsis among others. It is not e ...

resistance, are located on transposons and are readily transferred between replicons.

Earlier background

Born Naomi Goddard in London, she was educated at

St Mary's School, Wantage St Mary's School was an independent day and boarding girls' school located in Wantage, Oxfordshire, England. In 2007 it merged with Heathfield School to become Heathfield St Mary's School (later reverted to Heathfield) and the Wantage site was c ...

in Oxfordshire and later at the

University of Paris , image_name = Coat of arms of the University of Paris.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of Arms , latin_name = Universitas magistrorum et scholarium Parisiensis , motto = ''Hic et ubique terrarum'' (Latin) , mottoeng = Here and a ...

. At the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, she returned to England to study medicine at

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

(UCL). She married her husband, Prakash Datta, in 1943, having met him in Leatherhead, Surrey, where she was studying having been evacuated from the capital two years earlier. She qualified as a doctor in 1946 and the following year worked as a junior doctor in various hospitals. Her first cousin was the distinguished soldier and Acting President of Rhodesia

Henry Everard Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Breedon Everard GCLM ICD DSO TD (21 February 1897 – 7 August 1980) was a railway engineer and executive who briefly became the Acting President of Rhodesia during the U.D.I. period. Everard was born in Barnet and ...

; their grandfather's first cousins were architect Henry Goddard and Mormon pioneer George Goddard.

Later years

Datta retired in 1984 and became emeritus professor of microbial genetics at the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

. The year after her retirement, in 1985, she was elected to fellowship of the Royal Society. During her retirement, she continued to pursue academia by first studying a postgraduate course in linguistics (although she was not able to obtain a qualification as she did not possess an undergraduate qualification in an arts subject), and then achieving a master's degree in human evolution in the department of anthropology. At 75, she was the oldest in the group. Known for her cooking and hospitality, Datta contributed to the Royal Society's anthology on food ''But the crackling is superb''.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Datta, Naomi 1922 births 2008 deaths British geneticists Female Fellows of the Royal Society Place of death missing Academics of the University of London Medical doctors from London Alumni of University College London University of Paris alumni Fellows of the Royal Society 20th-century British women scientists British bacteriologists British expatriates in France