Barbara McClintock and Her Jumping Gene Discovery: A Graphic Medicine Comic
Summary
This article describes a comic project about Barbara McClintock, the first woman to receive an unshared Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1983) for her discovery of mobile genetic elements ("jumping genes") in maize. It highlights how her work was only recognized more than 30 years after her discovery, and how institutional discrimination at Cornell University prevented her from majoring in genetics, leading her to earn degrees in botany instead. The comic was created for a Graphic Medicine seminar to visually communicate McClintock's career, genetic transposition, and institutional discrimination to a lay audience.
Source
bskyBarbara McClintock and Her Jumping Gene Discovery: A Graphic Medicine Comicmeetingarchive.ami.orgKey quotes
· 4 pulledIn 1983, Barbara McClintock was the first woman to receive an unshared Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for her discovery of mobile genetic elements.
McClintock demonstrated that genes can change position in maize, altering their phenotype.
When she attended Cornell University, women could not major in genetics, leading McClintock to receive her MS and PhD in botany.
The primary goal of this comic was to provide a lay audience with a succinct understanding of institutional discrimination, genetic transposition, and McClintock's career in short form.
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