| Monica Riley | |
| Death Place: | Richmond, California |
| Citizenship: | American |
| Known For: | Messenger RNA, Escherichia coli genome |
| Work Institutions: | University of California Davis, Stony Brook University, Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole |
| Alma Mater: | Smith College, University of California Berkeley |
| Thesis Title: | Selective destruction of genetic material and its effect on ¹-galactosidase synthesis in Escherichia coli |
| Thesis Url: | https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/ |
| Thesis Year: | 1960 |
Monica Riley (1926 – October 11, 2013) was an American scientist who contributed to the discovery of messenger RNA in her Ph.D work with Arthur Pardee, and was later a pioneer in the exploration and computer representation of the Escherichia coli genome.
After graduating from Smith College with a chemistry degree in 1947, she studied Biochemistry at University of California Berkeley with Pardee.[1] [2] Her Ph.D. work, together with the PaJaMo experiment, ruled out ribosomes as carriers of information to synthesize protein, leading to the discovery of messenger RNA.[3] After holding faculty positions at University of California Davis and Stony Brook University, she moved to the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, staying there until age 80.[2]
As a senior scientist at MBL she was one of the four founding faculty members of the Josephine Bay Paul Center for Comparative Molecular Biology and Evolution led by Mitchell Sogin.[4] During this time, she co-founded the EcoCyc database of Escherichia coli metabolism,[5] leading the curation of metabolic pathways and genome information for Escherichia coli for over a decade,[6] and developed classification systems for genes and proteins (including MultiFun), which were forerunners of gene ontology.[1] [2]