Happy birthday to Canadian geneticist Irene Ayako Uchida (1917-2013)! She is shown surrounded by chromosones, with anomalies (pink arrows) due to radiation exposure, based on 1 of her research papers. A strand of DNA is hidden in the image (her watchband).
Uchida didn’t set out to be a scientist. She was studying English literature at UBC, before she was interned with other Canadians of Japanese heritage during WWII. 🧵1/
After the war, the United Church gave her the opportunity to complete her degree at the University of Toronto. Her family's assets had been seized as she had nothing left for her in British Columbia. She planned to study social work at U of T but a zoology prof recognized her talent and recruited her for grad school. She brought the skills honed studying fruitfly chromosomes to Canadian hospitals when she started the first cytology department in the country. 🧵2/n
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