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Oral history interview with Pamela B. Meluh

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@ Science History Institute

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Pamela Meluh grew up in suburban Baltimore, Maryland, one of two children. Her father was a diesel mechanic, her mother a housewife. Although they did not have advanced education her parents always encouraged Pamela to do her best in school, in whatever field she chose. Her father liked to take Meluh exploring or sometimes working with him. She attended public schools, which she says were very good. She knew at a young age that she wanted to go to college and to study science. She attended Loyola College in Baltimore, receiving a broad education and majoring in biology. Next, Meluh entered the new Applied Molecular Biology Program at University of Maryland, Baltimore County, for a master’s degree in applied biology. She spent a summer at Merck & Co. and a summer at Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory; the latter remains a major influence in her career. Accepted into Princeton University’s PhD program, Meluh rotated into Mark Rose’s lab to work with microtubules. Using the dideoxy method of sequencing, she cloned KAR3, the first microtubule-associated protein in yeast; it is also a kinesin. This work generated a “landmark” Cell paper and contributed to her winning the Jacobus Fellowship. Still excited by mitosis and cell segregation, Meluh chose Douglas Koshland’s lab at Carnegie Institution of Washington for postdoctoral work. There she won a Helen Hay Whitney Fellowship. Despite sabotage of her buffers she published her work on MIF-2 and centromere’s function in yeast and higher eukaryotes and the implications for microtubules. She...
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Science History Institute

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