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'''Felisa Wolfe-Simon''' is an American microbial geobiologist and biogeochemist. In 2010, Wolfe-Simon led a team that discovered GFAJ-1 ("Give Felisa A Job"), an arsenate-resistant bacterium that they claimed was capable of substituting arsenic for a small percentage of the phosphorus in its DNA, even implying that they were extra-terrestrial in origin. GFAJ-1 was isolated from arsenic-rich Mono Lake in California. Her team used a radioactive arsenate isotope (73-As) and expensive but inconclusive X-ray absorption studies (XAS measurements) at SSRL and SLAC.<ref>http://cen.acs.org/articles/90/i29/Two-Studies-Rebut-Arsenic-Based.html</ref>
These claims received wide publicity at the time in part because of a NASA press-release style video presentation and because of Wolfe-Simon's gender, youth and charisma. Experts soon expressed doubts in her claims but Wolfe-Simon delayed sharing samples of CFAJ-1 for a year. In 2011, University of British Columbia microbiologist Rosie Redfield, obtained a sample of GFAJ-1 from Wolfe-Simon's team and attempted to replicate the results. Redfield used more traditional laboratory techniques.
In 2012, two reports refuting the most significant aspects of the original results were published in the same journal in which the original findings had been previously published.<ref> Erb, T. J.; Kiefer, P.; Hattendorf, B.; Gunther, D.; Vorholt, J. A. (2012). "GFAJ-1 Is an Arsenate-Resistant, Phosphate-Dependent Organism". Science. 337 (6093): 467–470. doi:10.1126/science.1218455</ref><ref>Reaves, M. L.; Sinha, S.; Rabinowitz, J. D.; Kruglyak, L.; Redfield, R. J. (2012). "Absence of Detectable Arsenate in DNA from Arsenate-Grown GFAJ-1 Cells". Science. 337 (6093): 470–473. doi:10.1126/science.1219861.</ref>
As of 2014, Wolfe-Simon was working at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California.<ref>http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/41056/title/Setting-the-Record-Straight/</ref>
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[[Category:Scientists]]