Leslie Barnett

Leslie Barnett (1920 to 2002), born Margaret Leslie Collard, was a British biologist and microbiologist who worked with Francis Crick, Sydney Brenner and Richard Watts-Tobin on the 1961 experiment that showed genetically that the genetic code is read in triplets and discovered frameshift mutations. After studying dairying at Reading University she joined the Medical Research Council unit in Cambridge as a technician, which became the Laboratory of Molecular Biology, and she also worked with Vernon Ingram on the amino acid change behind sickle cell haemoglobin. She was Senior Tutor of Clare Hall, Cambridge, from 1975 until she retired in 1985, and the college later named a student residence after her.