Martha Cowles Chase was an American geneticist. She was half of a scientist team that uses a kitchen blender in 1952 to help prove that DNA is the genetic material of life. Martha Chase met Alfred Hershey at Cold Spring Laboratory from the Carnegie Institution of Washington, where the Hershey-Chase experiment was performed. For their experiment, they chose to use the T2 bacteriophage as the vehicle for delivering genetic material. The T2 is comprised of only a protein-based outer wall and a DNA core. In the first experiment, they tagged the T2 phage DNA with Phosphorous-32.
They allowed to tagged phages in infecting samples of E. coli. After introducing the phage culture, they used the Waring blender to disturb the infected bacteria, causing
They allowed to tagged phages in infecting samples of E. coli. After introducing the phage culture, they used the Waring blender to disturb the infected bacteria, causing