Women in Science

          Judith Lea Swain  is a director of the division of cardiology, a director of a molecular biology laboratory, and a genetic professor at the university of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Philadelphia. In addition, she is the only woman to direct a cardiology department at a major medical center. Also, Judith is the only woman to achieve the president-elect of the Prestigious American Society for Clinical Investigation. In 1966, she went to University of California at San Diego and became a cardiologist. After that, she spent 17 years at Duke University. When Judith was at Duke University, she had a job as an interventional cardiologist. As a cardiologist at Duke, she used high-tech approaches to treat heart disease. In 1986, while working with Dr. Philip Leder at Harvard Medical School during her sabbatical, Judith found out that a gene was expressed  when it was inherited from the male but a gene was not present in the female. Through this example of genetic imprinting, she became a well known female molecular geneticists. Presently, Dr. Swain works on two research projects. Her first project is to see if a new heart can grow after a heart attack. Her other project is to study the transfer of genes to the heart and blood vessels.

                                                                        By: Yang Ling Lo