Maxine F. Singer, a biochemist and federal health official who in the 1970s was instrumental in developing guidelines that protected the then-nascent field of biotechnology while calming fears that this new science would give way to the spread of deadly lab-produced microbes, died on July 9 at her home in Washington, DC. She was 93.

In a letter to the journal Science,  Dr. Singer pointed out the risks to laboratory workers and called on the National Academies of Science to develop federal guidelines to protect them.