Editing Irene Uchida (section)

{{Short description|Canadian scientist and Down Syndrome researcher}}
{{Infobox person
| image       = <!-- Only freely-licensed images may be used to depict living people.  See [[WP:NONFREE]].  -->
| name        = Irene Ayako Uchida
| birth_date  = {{Birth date|1917|4|8}}
| birth_place = [[Vancouver|Vancouver, British Columbia]], Canada
| death_date  = {{Death date and age|2013|7|30|1917|4|8}}
| death_place = [[Toronto|Toronto, Ontario]], Canada
| education   = [[University of British Columbia]]<br>[[University of Toronto]]
| occupation  = Geneticist
| spouse      =
| parents     =
| children    =
}}

'''Irene Ayako Uchida''', {{Post-nominals|country=CAN|OC}} (April 8, 1917 – July 30, 2013) was a Canadian scientist and [[Down syndrome]] researcher.<ref>{{cite web |title=Irene Uchida |url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/irene-uchida |website=Canadian Encyclopedia |access-date=26 March 2020}}</ref>

Born in [[Vancouver]], Uchida initially studied [[English literature]] at the [[University of British Columbia]]. As a child and teenager, she played violin and piano, and was described as "outgoing" and "social." In 1940, she and two sisters visited her mother and youngest sister in [[Japan]]. She returned to Canada in November 1941, one month before [[Pearl Harbor]].<ref>{{cite journal | first = Ronald| last = Davidson | name-list-style = vanc | title= Irene A. Uchida, 1917–2013 | journal = American Journal of Human Genetics | date = October 2013 | volume = 93 | issue = 4 | pages = 591–594 | doi = 10.1016/j.ajhg.2013.09.005 | pmc = 3791260 }}</ref>

In Canada, she and her family were forcibly removed and incarcerated<ref>{{cite web | url = https://densho.org/terminology/?_gl=1*16r21gy*_gcl_au*MTg0MzI2MjIxMS4xNzI4NDA3NjYz*_ga*OTE4NTYxMjAwLjE3Mjg0MDc2NjM.*_ga_C5PYSSK3RX*MTcyODQwNzY2My4xLjEuMTcyODQwODM5NC4zMC4wLjE5NzI4ODY5NzU | title = Terminology | work = Densho Encyclopedia | access-date = 2024-11-04 }}</ref> at a [[Internment of Japanese Canadians|Canadian concentration camp]] in the Slocan Valley during World War II.<ref>{{cite news | first = Olesia | last = Plokhii | name-list-style = vanc | url = https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/irene-uchida-world-renowned-leader-in-genetics-research/article14324306/ | title = Irene Uchida, world-renowned leader in genetics research | work = The Globe and Mail | date = 13 September 2013 | access-date = 2018-03-26 }}</ref>

In 1944 Uchida, continued her studies at the [[University of Toronto]] where she wanted to get a master's degree in [[social work]]. Her professors encouraged her to pursue a career in [[genetics]], and as a result, she completed PhD in human genetics at the University of Toronto in 1951 and worked at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. At the Hospital for Sick Children, she studied [[twin]]s and children with [[Down syndrome]]. In the 1960s she helped identify the link between pregnant women who had undergone abdominal [[X-ray]]s and chromosomal [[birth defects]] such as [[Down syndrome]] in their subsequent pregnancies.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.science.ca/scientists/scientistprofile.php?pID=21 | title = Irene Ayako Uchida | work = Science.ca | access-date = 2018-04-07 }}</ref> She was also amongst those researchers in the 1960s who showed that the extra chromosome associated with Down Syndrome is not always from the mother, but the father may be responsible for 25 per cent of the births.

In 1960 she became the director of the Department of Medical Genetics at the Children's Hospital in [[Winnipeg, Manitoba|Winnipeg]] and became a professor at the University of Manitoba (National Library of Canada and National Archives of Canada, 1997). She moved to [[McMaster University]] in 1969, founding the cytogenetics laboratory. She became a professor in the pediatrics and pathology departments until leaving for [[Oshawa General Hospital]] to direct the cytogenetics laboratory in 1991.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Dickson |first1=Kathleen |last2=Bergeron |first2=John |title=Irene Uchida |url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/irene-uchida |website=The Canadian Encyclopedia |publisher=Historica Canada |access-date=8 February 2024}}</ref>

In 1993, she was made an Officer of the [[Order of Canada]] for "her research on radiation and human chromosome abnormalities [that] has made a notable contribution to medical science".<ref>{{OCC|3187}}</ref>