Hilda Tracy

Hilda Tracy (1927 - 2010) worked at University of Liverpool, UK, with Rod Gregory FRS to isolate and characterise the gastrointestinal hormone gastrin. She led the structure-function studies and had the first insight into gastrin's role in the clinical pathology of pancreatic Zollinger-Ellison tumours.
Education and personal life.
Hilda Tracy was born 14 October 1927 and was one of 4 children. Following her school education in Birkenhead, UK, she began working at Unilever on Merseyside. She was soon seconded to the University of Liverpool and joined the newly appointed Rod Gregory, Holt Professor of Physiology, and Head of Department, as a research assistant in 1950. With his encouragement she enrolled on a degree in medicine, gaining several prizes during her studies. She was a lecturer in the Department of Physiology from 1958 until she retired in 1993. She married in the 1950s and had two children.
Career.
Tracy worked primarily with Gregory until his death in 1990. Their collaboration defined understanding of the acid-secretory hormone gastrin during the 1960s and 70s. The hypothesis that a peptide was involved in control of secretion of gastric acid in the stomach had been accepted in the 1930s but the identity of the peptide was unknown. Between 1962 and 1968 their work isolated gastrin for the first time and sequenced it (in collaboration with George Kenner from the Department of Chemistry at University of Liverpool). They developed methods to isolate the 17 aminoacid gastrin peptide, starting from hundreds of pig stomachs for each preparation and initially identified two forms, distinguished by sulphation of a tyrosine residue. They went on to show that the 4 C-terminal aminoacid residues were responsible for all the hormone's activity.
She led in the structure-function studies, leading to development of a short peptide as a pharmaceutical.
Through her medical training, Tracy linked gastrin to a disease in humans, the rare cancer Zollinger–Ellison syndrome where excessive production of gastrin results in peptic ulcers. She drove this aspect of their research forwards that involved collaborations in the USA.
Legacy.
In 2017 the annual Hilda Tracy Lecture was inaugurated in the Institute of Translational Medicine, University of Liverpool, the successor organisation to where she worked. The first lecture was given by Dame Nicola Anne "Nicky" Cullum. The second in 2018 was by Professor Dame Margaret Whitehead about 'How does low income cause ill-health ? A public health perspective.' The 2019 lecture was given by Professor Maria Fitzgerald about 'Pain: a lifelong journey'.
Selected publications.
Tracy was author or co-author of over 32 scientific publications. They included: