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Beatrice B. Magee

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Beatrice B. "Bebe" Magee is an American biochemist and geneticist with expertise in molecular mycology and fungal genetics. She earned her B. A. in chemistry from Brandeis University in 1962 and her M. A. in biochemistry from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1964. She has been co-author on over 40 publications in peer-reviewed journals and an invited speaker at scientific meetings including Woods Hole and Cold Spring Harbor courses as well as at professional mycology societies.

Early life and education

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Born Beatrice Eve Buten[1] in Merion, Pennsylvania to parents known for their collection of Wedgwood porcelain, Magee grew up in a home which served as the Buten Museum, displaying what was then the largest collection of Wedgwood porcelain in the US.[2]

After graduating from Lower Merion High School, she attended Brandeis University majoring in chemistry,[1] where she undertook research into crustacyanin in the laboratory of William Jenks. Her work on this protein, responsible for the red formation of lobsters when cooked, resulted in an early scientific publication.[3] She graduated in 1962.

She earned her Master of Science degree in biochemistry at the University of California Berkeley in 1964.[1]

After she married fellow scientist Paul T. Magee,[1] they moved to Paris for 2 years where she attended lectures at the Collège de France and Le Cordon Bleu. Returning to the U.S., Magee spent the next 6 years working in the laboratory of Edward Adelberg and also gave birth to 2 sons. Magee then formed what has been a more than 35-year scientific collaboration with her husband at Michigan State University and then the University of Minnesota in the College of Biological Sciences. Magee has been a guest lecturer at the Woods Hole Molecular Mycology Course and Cold Spring Harbor courses.[4]

Magee and her husband have worked on the human fungal pathogen Candida albicans, and particularly their discovery of sexual mating in this fungus that had been thought to not have a mating cycle.[5] They also made significant contributions to elucidate the genomic sequence[6][7] and single nucleotide polymorphism mapping for this fungus.[5]

Personal life

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While Magee retired as a senior scientist from the University of Minnesota in 2007, she remains active singing and rowing. She sings in the second oldest feminist chorus in the U.S., the Calliope Women's Chorus [8] where she served as president for 4 years. She is also officiates at rowing regattas as a referee for the U.S. Rowing Association.

Academic appointments

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  • Associate in research, Yale University, department of microbiology, 1966‑68, 1969‑71.
  • Associate in research, Yale University, department of human genetics, 1972‑77.
  • Specialist, Michigan State University, College of Natural Sciences, 1978‑87.
  • Visiting research fellow, National Institute for Medical Research, Mill Hill, London NW7, UK, May‑August, 1985.
  • Senior scientist, University of Minnesota, College of Biological Sciences, Sept. 1987‑2007.
  • American Society for Microbiology Indo-American Visiting Professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India, 2006

Awards

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When she received the President's Outstanding Service Award from the University of Minnesota, College of Biological Sciences, the university acknowledged her as "the co-discoverer of mating in Candida" [9]

Selected publications

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d "NY Times wedding announcement 1964". The New York Times. 1964-08-07.
  2. ^ "Buten's Wedgwood Collection Finds New Home". 2011-08-11.
  3. ^ Jencks, W. P.; Buten, B. (1964). "The Denaturation of Crustacyanin". Archives of Biochemistry and Biophysics. 107 (3): 511–520. doi:10.1016/0003-9861(64)90309-1. PMID 14234502.
  4. ^ Espinell-Ingroff, Ana Victoria (2013). Medical Mycology in the United States: A historical analysis (1894-1996). Richmond, VA, USA: Springer Science & Business Media. p. 113. ISBN 978-90-481-6196-6.
  5. ^ a b Magee, P. T.; Magee, Beatrice B . (2004). "Through a glass opaquely: the biological significance of mating in Candida albicans". Current Opinion in Microbiology. 7 (6): 661–665. doi:10.1016/j.mib.2004.10.003. PMID 15556040.
  6. ^ Jones, Ted; Federspiel, Nancy A.; Chibana, Hiroji; Dungan, Jan; Kalman, Sue; Magee, B. B.; Newport, Georg e; Thorstenson, Yvonne R.; Agabian, Nina (2004). "The diploid genome sequence of Candida albicans". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 101 (19): 7329–7334. Bibcode:2004PNAS..101.7329J. doi:10.1073/pnas.0401648101. PMC 409918. PMID 15123810.
  7. ^ Espinell-Ingroff, Ana Victoria (2003). Medical Mycology in the United States. Springer-Science+Business Media, B.V. p. 121. ISBN 9789048161966.
  8. ^ "Calliope Chorus". Facebook.
  9. ^ "University of Minnesota Awars and Honors 2005".
  10. ^ van het Hoog, Marco; Rast, Timothy J.; Martchenko, Mikhail; Grindle, Suzanne; Dignard, Daniel; Hogues, Hervé; Cuomo, Christine; Berriman, Matthew; Scherer, Stewart (2007-01-01). "Assembly of the Candida albicans genome into sixteen supercontigs aligned on the eight chromosomes". Genome Biology. 8 (4): R52. doi:10.1186/gb-2007-8-4-r52. PMC 1896002. PMID 17419877.

Further reading

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