Marie Maynard Daly (April 16, 1921 – October 28, 2003) was the first African-American woman to receive a doctorate in Chemistry in the United States. She earned her Ph.D. at Columbia University in 1947. Marie Daly was an important contributor to the research and studies of cholesterol and the heart. Her studies also included researching the effects of sugars and nutrients on the health of arteries. She researched how advanced age and hypertension affected the circulatory system. In addition, she studied protein synthesis and how proteins are produced and organized in the cell. Her studies in protein would later help other scientists decipher the DNA molecule. The research and studies she conducted on cholesterol, sugars, and hypertension helped to determine the causes and effects of atherosclerosis.
Marie Daly was born in Queens, New York. Her mother was an avid reader. Her father attended the private and highly regarded Cornell University. While attending Cornell University, Mr. Ivan Daly studied chemistry. Unfortunately, he could not afford to continue his education. However, his daughter was influenced and completed what her father could not. Marie Daly earned both her Bachelor Degree and Masters Degree in Chemistry. She then made history by achieving a Ph.D. in Chemistry. Her doctoral work focused on how bodily compounds affect digestion, particularly amylase. The digestive protein amylase breaks bonds between carbohydrates in starches, converting them into simple sugars that the body can easily digest.
Dr. Marie Daly worked as an instructor at Howard University. She received a grant in 1948 from the American Cancer Society to examine how proteins are constructed in the body. She conducted her seven-year research program at the Rockefeller Institute of Medicine in New York. While in New York, Dr. Daly joined with the revolutionary Dr. Alfred E. Mirsky. Their work primarily sought to explore the composition and metabolization of parts of cellular nuclei and the creation of proteins. Afterwards, she worked as a biochemistry instructor at Columbia University while she studied arterial metabolism. Working with Dr. Quentin B. Deming, Dr. Daly made important research breakthroughs. Their team published a study uncovering a strong link between high blood pressure and blood cholesterol levels in rats. They also published work showing how high cholesterol levels contributed to clogged arteries.
Throughout her career, Dr. Marie Daly also served as a researcher and advisor for several esteemed scientific groups and organizations. She was an early investigator of the effects of smoking on the heart and lungs. From 1958–1963, she was an investigator for the American Heart Association (AHA). During the 1970s, she joined the New York Academy of Sciences. In 1960, she became a professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where she remained until her retirement in 1986. In 1988, she established a scholarship fund for African-American science students at Queens College in honor of her father.