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. 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.
R.A. Gregory and Tracy, H.J., French, J.M. and Sircus, W. Lancet, 1, 1045 - 1048
Grossman, M.I., Tracy, H.J., and Gregory R.A. Zollinger-Ellison syndrome in a Bantu woman, with isolation of a gastrin-like substance from primary and secondary tumors. 2. Extraction of gastrin-like activity from tumors. Gastroenterology 41 87-
R.A. Gregory and Hilda J. Tracy. J Physiology 156 523 - 543
Stanley R. Friesen, Tracy, Hilda J., and Gregory, R. A. Annals of Surgery, 155: 167–174.
Hilda J. Tracy and Gregory, R. A. Nature, 204, 935 - 938
R.A. Gregory and Hilda J. Tracy. Gut 5, 103 - 107
R.A. Gregory and Hilda J. Tracy. Gut 5, 107 - 117
R.A. Gregory and Hilda J, Tracy, Note on nature of gastrin-like stimulant present in Zollinger-Ellison tumours. Gut 5 115 -
J.S. Morley, Tracy, Hilda J., and Gregory, R. A. Structure–Function Relationships in the Active C-Terminal Tetrapeptide Sequence of Gastrin. Nature, 207, 1356 - 1359.
R.A. Gregory, Tracy, Hilda J., and Grossman, Morton I. Human Gastrin: Isolation, Structure and Synthesis. Nature, 209, 583
R.A. Gregory and Hilda J. Tracy. Isolation of 2 big-gastrins from Zollinger-Ellison tumor tissue. Lancet 2 797 - 799
G.J. Dockray and Hilda J. Tracy. . J. Physiol., 306, 473–480
