Since Esther Lederberg’s death in 2006, more of an effort has been made to give the scientist the credit that mostly eluded her during her life. According to Stanford University, Lederberg’s discovery of lambda phage became a popular tool for gene regulation and had a permanent influence on molecular genetics and virology. It became the model for studying similar animal viruses, like tumors and herpes, as she laid the groundwork for how genes can be transferred between bacteria. 

This research gave us an understanding of how DNA can be broken apart and form RNA and developed procedures in the laboratory that were used by scientists around the world, including several Nobel Prize winners. Lederberg became a Stanford professor at a time where not too many women were on the faculty list of the prestigious university, and the replica plating method developed by her and her husband is still used today. Much of what we know today about genes, viruses, and bacteria comes from the breakthroughs she made, even if we did not — and perhaps still fail to — properly recognize her.