Obituary - Maj Hultén

Maj Hultén

Professor and Consultant Clinical Cytogeneticist (b1932, died 29 May 2024). Maj was born in Lund where her father was Professor of Botany. She had a worldwide reputation in cytogenetics having been at its heart from its inception. At university in Stockholm and Lund she initially studied psychology and genetics but was inspired to study medicine having been present when Dr Joe-Hin Tjio first developed a method of visualising human chromosomes, the story of which she was always pleased to tell in her own inimitable way. She hoped that this major finding would lead to genetics being relevant to Medicine. From 1963 to 1974 she ran what was possibly the first genetics service laboratory in Stockholm and for most of that time before chromosome banding was widely available. At this time, she also began her studies on male meiosis made possible initially by obtaining a testicular biopsy from a translocation carrier, a technique with she had considerable success, modifying existing methodology for blood chromosomes. She famously threw away her initial preparations but fished them out of a bin the following day and realised she actually had some good results visualising clear translocation quadrivalents which ended with a publication to Nature in 1966.

Having completed her doctorate, she moved to the UK in 1975 to direct (until 1997) the cytogenetics service at the then East Birmingham Hospital, which later incorporated a molecular genetics service at the newly named Birmingham Heartlands Hospital. In addition, she initially provided a clinical counselling service for patients with cytogenetic abnormalities Maj directed a large multi-disciplinary service and was always quick to embrace new technologies, such as Fluorescence in situ Hybridisation to interpret chromosome abnormalities and in the study of the origins of human aneuploidy. She had the vision to recognise the potential of molecular technologies such as QF-PCR in prenatal diagnosis.  Her research continued alongside directing the service laboratory.  Her research into meiosis included studies on meiotic recombination in males and females resulting in some of the earliest genetic maps for a number of chromosomes, and the application of in situ hybridisation to meiotic studies, to study mechanisms of inherited chromosome abnormalities, as well as radiobiology.  She ran multiple research projects and supervised many doctoral students and fellows. She supported oversees researchers notably a researcher from Ukraine who had experienced the Chernobyl disaster first hand and came to work with Maj to study the aftereffects of the radiation damage.

Maj became honorary professor in Medical Genetics/ Reproductive Genetics at the University of Birmingham 1989-1999. After retirement from the NHS, her research continued at Warwick University and after returning to Sweden, as Professor Emerita at the Karolinska Institute from 2010, carried on supervising PhD students into her 80s. She has an impressive publication record over 60 years until 2019. For many years she was also the chief medical advisor to the rare chromosome research group, UNIQUE, providing her expertise to the benefit of patients and their families.

Outside work, which was rare, Maj’s artistic flair (another family trait) manifested in her passion for developing houses and gardens often using recycled materials. Discarded pathology benches lived on as kitchen units and the hospital gatehouse porch became a distinctive feature in her Birmingham garden.

She is survived by her daughter Sofia, a granddaughter and by foster children Andrew and Rebecca and their children.

Fiona Macdonald

Mary Honeyman

Jonathan Waters

Carole McKeown