Margarita Salas


Margarita Salas Falgueras, 1st Marchioness of Canero was a Spanish scientist, medical researcher, and author in the fields of biochemistry and molecular genetics. Salas' discovery of the bacterial virus Φ29 DNA polymerase was recognized by the Spanish National Research Council as the highest-grossing patent in Spain. Her cumulative work, as described by The Local in 2019, "invented a faster, simpler and more reliable way to replicate trace amounts of DNA into quantities large enough for full genomic testing."
She was the first scientific woman ever elected to the Royal Spanish Academy. Shortly before her death, she was awarded the 2019 European Inventor Award. Salas was raised into the Spanish nobility by King Juan Carlos I in Summer 2008 with the hereditary title of Marquesa de Canero. Throughout her career in academia, she advised more than 40 doctoral students and published over 200 scientific articles. She was an outspoken advocate of women and feminism in science.

Early life and career

Margarita Salas Falgueras was born on 30 November 1938 in Canero, a parish of Valdés, Spain. She is the daughter of a psychiatric doctor. She graduated from the Complutense University of Madrid with a B.A. in chemistry and obtained a PhD degree in 1963, with as doctoral supervisor. After finishing their thesis, in August of 1964, they travelled to the United States to work with Severo Ochoa. On their return to Spain, Salas and her husband established a laboratory to research molecular biology at the Center for Biological Research in Madrid. Viñuela began a different field of research in 1970, studying the African plague virus, so that Salas would be recognised on her own merits. Salas was a professor of molecular genetics at the Complutense University Faculty of Chemistry from 1968 to 1992. She was also a professor of research at the Severo Ochoa Center for Molecular Biology from 1974, and its director from 1992 until January 1994.
She was elected president of the Spanish Society of Biochemistry in 1988. She then served as the director of the Foundation for Biomedical Research at the Gregorio Marañón Hospital, and of the Institute of Spain. She was responsible for promoting Spanish research in the fields of biochemistry and molecular biology. She was an honorary professor at the Spanish National Research Council in the field of biotechnology.

Scientific career

Salas was the first scientific woman elected in the Royal Spanish Academy. She was appointed on 20 December 2001, and took up her seat on 4 June 2003. On 11 July 2008, Salas was raised into the Spanish nobility by King Juan Carlos I with the hereditary title of Marquesa de Canero. She supervised more than 40 doctoral students and published over 200 scientific articles.

Early work

After obtaining an undergraduate degree in chemistry, Margarita Salas joined the laboratory of Alberto Sols, where she completed her doctoral thesis on the anomeric specificity of glucose-6-phosphate isomerase. She then worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the United States for three years at New York University with Severo Ochoa.

Bacterial virus Φ29 DNA polymerase

During her time in Ochoa's laboratory, Salas determined the directionality of genetic information reading. She also discovered and characterized the Φ29 phage DNA polymerase, which has biotechnological applications due to its high DNA amplification properties. Her research allowed trace amounts of DNA to be replicated more quickly and reliably, making DNA analysis accessible in fields such as archaeology and forensics, where only trace amounts may be retrieved, and in oncology. The method is now called multiple displacement amplification.
In 2012 she was professor ad honorem at the Center for Molecular Biology Severo Ochoa, CSIC's research center and the Autonomous University of Madrid, where she continued to work on the bacterial virus Φ29, which infects a non-pathogenic bacterium Bacillus subtilis.

Scientific activity

Salas published more than 300 scientific articles and other works. She also has 8 patents, and presented papers at 398 conferences and seminars. The patent relating to her discovery of Φ29 generated more royalties for the Spanish National Research Council than any of its other patents, with 50% of its patent royalty income deriving from that one patent.

Personal life

In 1963, she married. Salas and Viñuela had one daughter. She was reported as saying that she delayed motherhood until she was 37, when she felt that she could combine both professional and family life. She died on 7 November 2019 in Madrid at age 80.

Awards and honors

Salas won the L'Oréal-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science in its first year, 2000. She was a member of Spanish Royal Academy of Sciences, European Academy of Sciences and Arts, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, American Academy of Microbiology, United States National Academy of Sciences, and the Severo Ochoa Foundation. She was awarded honorary doctorates by the University of Oviedo, University of Extremadura, University of Murcia and the University of Cádiz.