Margarita Salas

Margarita Salas was a Spanish scientist, medical researcher, and author in the fields of biochemistry and molecular genetics. She started developing molecular biology in Spain and also worked as an honorary associate professor of CSIC, at the Severo Ochoa Biology Center (UAM). In 2016 she became the first woman ever to receive the Echegaray Medal, that was given to her by the Royal Academy of Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences. Salas' discovery of the bacterial virus Φ29 DNA polymerase was recognized by the Spanish National Research Council as the highest-grossing patent in Spain. Her cumulative work, as described by The Local in 2019, "invented a faster, simpler and more reliable way to replicate trace amounts of DNA into quantities large enough for full genomic testing." She was the first scientific woman ever elected to the Royal Spanish Academy. Shortly before her death, she was awarded the 2019 European Inventor Award. Salas was raised into the Spanish nobility by King Juan Carlos I in Summer 2008 with the hereditary title of Marquesa de Canero. Throughout her career in academia, she advised more than 40 doctoral students and published over 200 scientific articles. She was an outspoken advocate of women and feminism in science. Salas was born on 30 November 1938 in Canero, a parish of Valdés, Asturias, Spain. She was the daughter of José Salas Martínez, a psychiatric doctor who influenced her, encouraging her interest in science, and Margarita Falgueras Gatell, a teacher. She had two brothers who were also scientists: José Salas Falgueras and María Luisa "Marisa" Salas Falgueras. At the age of sixteen she went to Madrid to carry out the Chemistry and Medicine entrance tests. She entered the faculty of Chemistry and in the summer of 1958 met Severo Ochoa, who had influence on her career and oriented her towards biochemistry. She graduated from the Complutense University of Madrid with a B.A. in chemistry and obtained a PhD degree in 1963, with Alberto Sols as doctoral supervisor. After finishing their thesis, in August 1964, she travelled to the United States with her husband, Eladio Viñuela, whom she married in 1963,to work with Severo Ochoa. The lab was deciphering the mechanisms that transfer genetic information from DNA to protein — replication, transcription and translation. Salas contributed two key pieces of information. First, she found that these mechanisms read the linear DNA message in only one direction. Second, she helped to show that the triplet of RNA nucleotides UAA represents a stop codon, where protein synthesis ends. Returning to Spain in 1967, Salas and Viñuela set up a lab at the CSIC’s Centre for Biological Research in Madrid. They carried out a systematic genetic analysis of a bacterial virus, the phage ϕ29. Salas discovered that the linear, double-stranded DNA of the virus had a specific protein attached at one end of each strand. She found that this protein acts as a starting point when the viral genome replicates. The mechanism also operates in some mammalian viruses, including those that infect humans, such as adenovirus and hepatitis B virus. In 1977, Salas made her last academic move — to the recently founded Severo Ochoa Centre for Molecular Biology (CBMSO). There she continued her research on ϕ29 DNA polymerase and its applications. She also mentored many young scientists and promoted the advancement of women in science. She received numerous awards and honors for her scientific contributions, including the L'Oréal-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science in 2000, the Premio México de Ciencia y Tecnología in 1998, the European Inventor Award in 2019, and the Echegaray Medal in 2016. She was also a member of several academies and societies, such as the Royal Spanish Academy, the Spanish Royal Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences of the United States, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Salas died on 7 November 2019 in Madrid at the age of 80, of a cardiac arrest after a complication of a digestive ailment from which she was to be operated. She was buried at the Cementerio de la Almudena in Madrid. She is survived by her daughter-in-law and two grandchildren. Her husband Eladio Viñuela died in 1999. Salas is widely regarded as one of the most influential and inspiring scientists in Spain and beyond. Her legacy lives on in her discoveries, her patents, her publications, and her students.