[3] After qualifying in medicine in 1946, Datta joined the Public Health Laboratory Service as a bacteriologist and worked here for ten years.

She then worked at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School at Hammersmith Hospital for almost three decades, joining as a lecturer in 1957 and later becoming professor of microbial genetics.

[4] In 1959 there was a severe outbreak of Salmonella typhimurium phage-type 27 and, as part of her research at Hammersmith Hospital, Datta examined 309 cultures to see if the strain was unaltered after moving through hosts.

Notably, Datta observed that earlier cultures of the salmonella typhimurium infection (from the start of the outbreak) were not drug-resistant, so it seemed that the antibiotic resistance had developed over time.

Born Naomi Goddard in London, she was educated at St Mary's School, Wantage in Oxfordshire and later at the University of Paris.