| Date |
Event |
People |
Places |
Blackwell was the first woman to graduate from a medical school in US (Geneva Medical College, New York). In 1857 she set up the New York Dispensary for Indigent Women and Children. A year later she became the first woman registered on UK Medical Register. Blackwell was an ardent promoter of women's education in medicine. In 1874 she helped set up the London School of Medicine for Women which prepared women to take licensing exams. For Blackwell, medicine was a means for social and moral reform. Between 1880 and 1895 she became involved in a number of reform movements, including moral reform, sexual purity, hygiene, Eugenics, medical ethics, and women's rights. 1821-02-03T00:00:00+0000| 3 Feb 1821 | | Elizabeth Blackwell was born in Bristol, Gloucestershire, EnglandBlackwell | |
Garrett Anderson was the first woman to qualify as a woman in Britain (1865) and the first woman to receive a medical degree in France (1870). Unable to take up a medical post in any hospital in Britain, Garrett Anderson opened her own practice and in 1866 opened the St Mary's Dispensary for Women and Children. She subsequently co-founded the London School of Medicine for Women (later called the Royal Free Hospital of Medicine). It was the first hospital to be staffed by women and to train women doctors. Garrett Anderson was dean of the hospital's medical school from 1883-1903. .1836-06-19T00:00:00+0000| 19 Jun 1836 | | Elizabeth Garrett Anderson was bornGarrett Anderson | Royal Free Hospital |
Hyde was a physiologist who is credited with the invention of the intracellular micropippette electrode. It provided the first means to record electrical activity within a cell without destroying the cellular wall. The electrode was powerful enough to stimulate tissue chemically or electronically and small enough to inject or remove tissue from a cell. She devised the electrode as part of her research into animal cardiac movement, circulation, respiration, and nervous systems. Overall her device revolutionised neurophysiology and the study of contractile nerve tissue. Hyde was the first woman to graduate from the University or Hedidelberg and to do research at Harvard Medical School. She was also the first woman to be elected to the American Physiology Society.
1857-09-08T00:00:00+0000| 8 Sep 1857 | | Ida H Hyde was born in Davenport, Iowa, USAHyde | Heidelberg University, University of Kansas, University of Berne, Radcliffe College |
Picotte was the first Native American woman to gain a medical degree in the USA. She was first inspired to train as a physician when as a child she witnessed a sick Indian woman die because the local white doctor refused to care for her. Picotte opened a hospital in the reservation town of Walthill, Nebraska and set up a private practice to look after both white and non-white patients. She was a strong campaigner to prohibit alcohol on reservations. 1865-06-17T00:00:00+0000| 17 Jun 1865 | | Susan LaFlesche Picotte was born on the Omaha Reservation, USALaFlesche Picotte | |
Curie was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize, in 1903, and the first person to win it twice, in 1911. She developed techniques for isolating radioactive isotopes and discovered the two elements, polonium and radium. Curie also pioneered the use of radioactive isotopes to treat cancer and developed mobile radiography mobile unites to provide X-ray services in field hospitals during World War I. Throughout her life Curie experienced major challenges because of her sex. Denied a regular university education in Poland, her home country, because she was a woman, she had to study in France to get her degree. In 1903 the French Academy of Sciences tried to keep her name off its list of Nobel Prize nominees and the Swedish Academy of Sciences asked her not to attend the Nobel ceremony in 1911 because of negative publicity surrounding her personal life.1867-11-07T00:00:00+0000| 7 Nov 1867 | | Marie Curie, nee Sklodowska, born in Warsaw, Russian Empire (now Poland)Curie | Warsaw |
Wollstein was a pioneer paediatric pathologist at a time when women rarely worked in the field of pathology. One of her key contributions was the development of antiserum therapies to treat both paediatric and adult infectious diseases, including a potent polyvalent antiserum to treat meningitis. She was the first woman to ever be elected a member of the American Pediatric Society. In 1904 she joined the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research where she did important experimental work on polio, pneumonia and other diseases. Her work was important for showing that mumps could be viral in nature. 1868-11-21T00:00:00+0000| 21 Nov 1868 | | Martha Wollstein was born in New York City, USAWollstein | Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research |
Sabin was a pioneering medical scientist who was the first woman to be appointed a full professor at Johns Hopkins University. She was also the first woman to be elected to the National Academy of Sciences and to head up a department at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research. For many years she was involved in the investigation of the lymphatic system. She demonstrated that lymphatic vessels develop from a special layer of cells in certain fetal veins. She also made many discoveries relating to the origin and development of blood vessels and blood cells. 1871-11-09T00:00:00+0000| 9 Nov 1871 | | Florence R Sabin was born in Colorado, USAFlorence Sabin | |
McCormick was one of the first women to earn a biology degree from MIT. She went on to become a prominent suffragist and philanthropist who played a significant role in the development of the first oral contraceptive pill. She provided $2 million of her own money for the development of the pill, first approved for gynaecological disorders in 1957. McCormick continued to provide funding to improve birth control once the pill was approved. 1875-08-27T00:00:00+0000| 27 Aug 1875 | | Katherine McCormick bornMcCormick | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
A trained botanist and geologist, Stopes was the first female academic to get a position at the University of Manchester where she conducted research on plant palaeontology and coal classification. She is best known for her campaigning work to make birth control available to women. In 1921 she helped to open the first clinic in London that offered birth control advice and dispensed contraception to poor mothers.1880-10-15T00:00:00+0000| 15 Oct 1880 | | Marie Stopes was born in Edinburgh, ScotlandStopes | Manchester University |
Dick originally trained as a zoologist and then completed a medical degree. She made her name studying scarlet fever after she herself caught the disease. In 1923 she and her husband George Dick, worked out that the disease was caused by a toxin released by a strain of Streptococcus bacteria. This enabled them to create an antitoxin for treatment and vaccine for prevention. She also devised a technique to prevent cross infection of scarlet fever among infants. Known as the Dick Aseptic Nursery Technique this promoted strict sterilisation and aseptic procedures. 1881-12-18T00:00:00+0000| 18 Dec 1881 | | Gladys Rowena H Dick was born in Pawnee City, Nebraska, USAGladys Dick | University of Chicago, John R. McCormick Institute for Infectious Diseases, St Luke's Hospital |
Willis was a haematologist who discovered a nutritional factor in yeast, now known as folic acid, which prevents and cures macrocytic anaemia, a life-threatening condition that can develop in pregnancy. The disease is particularly prevalent in poor women in the tropics who have inadequate diets. Willis made her discovery while working in India. Noticing that wealthy women seemed to suffer less from the symptoms of anaemia than poor women, Willis hypothesised that the disease was linked to nutrition. She found that liver supplements and Marmite, a spread high in vitamin B made from brewer's yeast could combat anaemia in rats. This led her to successfully treating anaemia in pregnant Indian women by using liver supplements and Marmite. Her results were published in 1931. 1888-05-10T00:00:00+0000| 10 May 1888 | | Lucy Willis was born in Sutton Coldfield, United KingdomWillis | Royal Free Hospital, Haffkine Institute |
Ball was an African-American chemist who developed the first effective treatment for leprosy or Hansen's disease. The treatment emerged out of her investigation of the chemical makeup of the active principle of the Piper methysticum (kava), a plant grown on the Pacific islands, for her master's thesis at the University of Hawaii. Aged just 23 she developed an extract from the plant that was easily absorbed in the body when injected. Sadly she died a year later and was never given credit for her achievement. She was the first woman and Black African American to graduate with a master's degree from the University of Hawaii and the first woman professor at the university.1892-07-24T00:00:00+0000| 24 Jul 1892 | | Alice A Ball was born in Seattle, Washington, USABall | University of Hawaii |
Curie's idea laid the foundation for disproving the traditional belief that atoms were indivisible. She made the hypothesis after discovering that the activity of uranium compounds depend on the quantity of uranium present1897-01-01T00:00:00+0000| 1897 | | Marie Curie hypothesised that radiation came from the atom and not from the interaction of molecules.Curie | |
1897-01-01T00:00:00+0000| 1897 - 1899 | | Marie Curie devised methods for measuring radioactivityCurie | |
Seibert was a biochemist whose isolation of a pure form of tuberculin (a protein substance from the tuberculosis-causing bacillus Mycobacterium tuberculosis)
in the 1930s paved the way to her development of the first reliable TB test. Devised at the University of Uppsala, Seibert's test, which is carried out on the skin, was adopted as the standard TB test in the United States in 1941 and by the World Health Organisation in 1952. Her test is still in use today. Prior to her work on TB, Seibert invented a new distillation process for intravenous injections that eliminated all bacteria. She developed the technique during her doctorate after finding that intravenous injections contaminated with distilled water could cause fevers in patients. 1897-10-06T00:00:00+0000| 6 Oct 1897 | | Florence B Seibert was born in Easton, PA, USASeibert | Yale University, University of Uppsala, University of Chicago, University of Pennsylvania |
1898-01-01T00:00:00+0000| 1898 | | Marie Curie, together with her husband Pierre, discovered polonium and radium, two new elementsCurie | |
Curie used the term to describe the behaviour of uranium and thorium. 1898-04-01T00:00:00+0000| April 1898 | | Marie Curie coined the term 'radioactivity'Curie | |
Alexander was a paediatrician and microbiologist. In the 1940s she developed the first effective treatment against Haemophilus influenzae (Hib), a major killer of infants. Her treatment helped reduce mortality from the disease from nearly 100 per cent to less than 25 per cent. It involved the combination of antiserum therapy with sulfa drugs. Alexander was also one of the first scientists to identify and study antibiotics resistance, which emerged out of her search for antibiotics to treat Hib. She worked out that the resistance was due to random genetic mutations in DNA that were positively selected through evolution. 1901-04-05T00:00:00+0000| 5 Apr 1901 | | Hattie Elizabeth Alexander was born in New York City, USAAlexander | Columbia University |
McClintock was a pioneer in the field of cytogenetics, a branch of genetics concerned with how chromosomes affect cell behaviour. Based on her investigation of how chromosomes change in reproduction in maize she demonstrated in the late 1920s that genes can shift to different locations by themselves. In the 1940s and 1950s she showed that genes are responsible for turning physical characteristics on and off, a process called transposition. Initially scientists were sceptical of her findings so she stopped publishing her data in 1953. By the 1960s and 1970s attitudes towards her work changed as more scientists made similar findings. She was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1983 for her work.1902-06-16T00:00:00+0000| 16 Jun 1902 | | Barbara McClintock was born in Hartford CT, USAMcClintock | University of Missouri |
Vogt was a pharmacologist who left Nazi Germany in 1933 for Britain where she became one of the leading neuroscientists of the twentieth century. Her most important contribution was advancing knowledge about the role of neurotransmitters in the brain. She demonstrated that the hormones epinephrine and norepinephrine enable brain cells to communicate. In 1954 she published a paper on sympathin which helped to establish the important role of amines in the brain and paved the way to the development of modern anti-depressant therapy.1903-09-08T00:00:00+0000| 8 Sep 1903 | | Marthe L Vogt was born in Berlin, GermanyVogt | National Institute for Medical Research |
Curie shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with the physicist Antoine Becquerel and her husband Pierre Curie. The Prize was given in recognition for the work they did on radiation. Originally the Nobel Committee failed to include Marie in on the award but changed their position after receiving a complaint from Pierre who had been alerted by Magnus Goesta Mittag-Leffler of their failure to recognise Marie's work.
1903-12-10T00:00:00+0000| 10 Dec 1903 | | Marie Curie became the first woman to win a Nobel PrizeCurie | |
Gwei-djen was a biochemist who undertook pioneering work on metabolic pathways. In 1933, Gwei-djen took the bold decision to leave China, then isolated from the West, to study for a doctorate at Cambridge University where she remained for the rest of her career. By 1939 she had developed the first sensitive assay for detecting low levels of pyruvic acid, an intermediate involved in the breakdown of carbohydrates. Her work demonstrated that the levels of pyruvic acid could be raised by vitamin B1 deficiency and exercise. Gwei-djen worked closely with both Dorothy and Joseph Needham. Together with Joseph she compiled a series of books detailing Chinese achievements in science and technology.1904-07-22T00:00:00+0000| 22 Jul 1904 | | Lu Gwei-djen was born in Nanjing, Qing ChinaGwei-djen | University of Cambridge |
Studying the mealworm, Stevens found that males made reproductive cells with both X and Y chromosomes whereas the females made only those with X. NM Stevens, 'Studies in spermatogenesis with special reference to the accessory chromosome', Studies in Sermatogenesis (Washington, DC, 1905), 1-32. 1905-01-01T00:00:00+0000| 1905 | | Nettie Stevens showed that sex is inherited by a chromosomal factor and that males determine the gender of offspringStevens | |
Stewart was a physician who was the first person to demonstrate the link between x-rays of pregnant women and childhood cancer. While it took time for her findings, first published in 1956, to be accepted, her work paved the way to the eventual curtailment of the use of medical x-rays during pregnancy and early childhood. The early criticism of her results prevented her from being appointed a professor. She only gained proper recognition for her research after an American study confirmed her findings in 1962. She was invited to become the first Chair of the European Committee on Radiation Risk in 1997. 1906-10-04T00:00:00+0000| 4 Oct 1906 | | Alice M Stewart was born in Sheffield, UKStewart | Oxford University |
Levi-Montalcini is best known for sharing the Nobel Prize in 1986 for helping to discover and isolate the nerve growth factor which helps regulate the growth, maintenance, proliferation and survival of certain neurons. Banned by Mussolini from working in academia because she was Jewish, Levi-Montalcini conducted much of her early work in a makeshift laboratory in her bedroom. She later became the director of the Research Center of Neurobiology and the Laboratory of Cellular Biology in Washington University and founded the European Brain Research Institute. 1909-04-22T00:00:00+0000| 22 Apr 1909 | | Rita Levi-Montalcini was born in Turin, ItalyLevi-Montalcini | Washington University |
Apgar was an obstetrical anaesthesiologist who introduced the first test for assessing the health of newborn babies in 1953. Known as the Apgar Score. this test assesses the baby's heart rate, respiration, colour, muscle tone and reflect irritability. During the rubella pandemic of 1964-65, Apgar became a strong advocate for universal vaccination to prevent mother to child transmission of the disease. She also promoted the effective use of Rh testing to identify women at risk of transmitting maternal antibodies against they placenta which can cause life-threatening anaemia in the baby. Apgar was the first woman to head a specialty division at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center and Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. 1909-06-07T00:00:00+0000| 7 Jun 1909 | | Virginia Apgar was born in Westfield, NJ, USAApgar | Columbia University |
Dorothy Hodgkin, was a British chemist who pioneered protein crystallography, a technique the uses x-ray crystallography to determine the three dimensional structure of protein crystals. She used the technique to confirm the structure of penicillin, in 1945, for which she won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1964. Hodgkin was the third woman to win the Nobel Prize. In addition to penicillin, Hodgkin published the first structure of a steroid and deciphered the structure of vitamin B12 and insulin. Her protein crystallography technique is now an essential tool for research into structural biology.1910-05-12T00:00:00+0000| 12 May 1910 | | Dorothy M Crowfoot Hodgkin was born in Cairo, EgyptD Hodgkin | Cairo, Egypt |
Born in Britain, Blackwell was the first woman to graduate from a medical school in US (Geneva Medical College, New York). In 1857 she set up the New York Dispensary for Indigent Women and Children. A year later she became the first woman registered on UK Medical Register. Blackwell was an ardent promoter of women's education in medicine. In 1874 she helped set up the London School of Medicine for Women which prepared women to take the licensing exams. Blackwell saw medicine as a tool for social and moral reform. Between 1880 and 1895 she was involved in a number of reform movements, including moral reform, sexual purity, hygiene, Eugenics, medical ethics, and women's rights. 1910-05-31T00:00:00+0000| 31 May 1910 | | Elizabeth Blackwell diedBlackwell | |
Hobby was a microbiologist whose work was pivotal to scaling up the production of penicillin in World War II and the development of other antibiotics. She first became involved in work on nonpathogenic organisms when doing her doctorate at Columbia University in 1935. From 1934 to 1943 Hobby worked for Presbyterian Hospital and the Columbia Medical School. Thereafter she went to work for Pfizer Pharmaceuticals in New York where she conducted research on streptomycin and other antibiotics. She founded the monthly publication 'Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy' in 1972 and published 'Penicillin: Meeting the Challenge' in 1985. 1910-11-19T00:00:00+0000| 19 Nov 1910 | | Gladys Lounsbury Hobby was bornHobby | Columbia University, Pfizer |
1911-01-01T00:00:00+0000| 1911 | | Marie Curie published the standard for radiumCurie | |
Known as 'Petits Curies' the technology helped locate fractures, bullets and shrapnel in wounded soldiers. 1914-01-01T00:00:00+0000| 1914 | | Marie Curie developed small, mobile x-ray units for the diagnosis of injuries at the battlefront in World War ICurie | |
Picotte was the first Native American woman to gain a medical degree in the USA. She was first inspired to train as a physician when as a child she witnessed a sick Indian woman die because the local white doctor refused to care for her. Picotte opened a hospital in the reservation town of Walthill, Nebraska and set up a private practice to look after both white and non-white patients. She was a strong campaigner to prohibit alcohol on reservations. 1915-09-18T00:00:00+0000| 18 Sep 1915 | | Susan LaFlesche Picotte diedLaFlesche Picotte | |
Stern was the first to describe how a healthy cell changes into a cancerous cell. She showed that a normal cell goes through 250 distinct stages before it become cancerous. Stern's work helped transform cervical cancer into an easily diagnosed and treatable condition. She also demonstrated the links between the herpes simplex virus and cervical cancer and between cervical cancer and the oral contraceptive pill. 1915-09-19T00:00:00+0000| 19 Sep 1915 | | Elizabeth Stern was born in Cobalt, Ontario, CanadaStern | University of California Los Angeles |
Ball was an African-American chemist who developed the first effective treatment for leprosy or Hansen's disease. The treatment emerged out of her investigation of the chemical makeup of the active principle of the Piper methysticum (kava), a plant grown on the Pacific islands, for her master's thesis at the University of Hawaii. Aged just 23 she developed an extract from the plant that was easily absorbed in the body when injected. Sadly she died a year later and was never given credit for her achievement. She was the first woman and Black African American to graduate with a master's degree from the University of Hawaii and the first woman chemistry professor at the university.1916-12-31T00:00:00+0000| 31 Dec 1916 | | Alice A Ball diedBall | University of Hawaii |
Chatterjee was an organic chemist who was the first woman to receive a doctorate in science from an Indian university - Calcutta University. Most of her work concentrated on researching various alkaloid compounds. She is best known for her discovery of the anti-epileptic activity of Marsilea minuta, an aquatic fern, which led to the development of the an epilepsy drug called Ayush-56. Chatterjee also found the anti-malarial properties of the plants Alstonia scholaris, Swertia chirata, Picrorhiza kurroa and Caesalpinia crista which led to antimalarial drugs. 1917-09-23T00:00:00+0000| 23 Sep 1917 | | Asima Chatterjee was born in Bengal, IndiaChatterjee | University of Calcutta |
Garrett Anderson was the first woman to qualify as a woman in Britain (1865) and the first woman to receive a medical degree in France (1870). Unable to take up a medical post in any hospital in Britain, Garrett Anderson opened her own practice and in 1866 opened the St Mary's Dispensary for Women and Children. She subsequently co-founded the London School of Medicine for Women (later called the Royal Free Hospital of Medicine). It was the first hospital to be staffed by women and to train women doctors. Garrett Anderson was dean of the hospital's medical school from 1883-1903.
. 1917-12-17T00:00:00+0000| 17 Dec 1917 | | Elizabeth Garrett Anderson diedGarrett Anderson | Royal Free Hospital |
Elion was a biochemist and pharmacologist renowned for developing new methods to design drugs that took advantage of the biochemical differences between normal human cells and pathogens (disease-causing agents). The aim was to create a drug capable of killing or inhibiting the reproduction of pathogens without harming healthy cells. Elion helped develop a number of drugs for a variety of diseases, including leukaemia and malaria. One of her most notable achievements was the creation of the first immunosuppressive drug for organ transplant patients. In 1988 she was joined awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 'discoveries of important principles for drug treatment.'1918-01-23T00:00:00+0000| 23 Jan 1918 | | Gertrude B Elion was born in New York NY, USAElion | Wellcome Research Laboratories |
Saruhashi is renowned for being the first scientist to demonstrate the dangers of radioactive fallout in seawater that resulted from nuclear bomb testing in 1954. Her evidence was later used to prevent further nuclear testing by governments. Despite her achievement, she suffered discrimination as a woman scientist. She was the first woman to earn a doctorate in chemistry from the University of Tokyo in 1957. Convinced that technical expertise was the key to women's independence she established the Society of Japanese Scientists in 1958 to promote women in science. 1920-03-22T00:00:00+0000| 22 Mar 1920 | | Katsuko Saruhashi was born in Tokyo, JapanSaruhashi | |
Franklin was a biophysicist. She is best known for having taken photo 51, in 1952, which provided the first evidence of the double helix structure of DNA. She took the photo using x-ray crystallography. Data from the photo was pivotal to Crick and Watson's building of their DNA double helical structure of DNA FOR which they won the Nobel Prize in 1962. Sadly Franklin died too early to receive the Nobel Prize for her work.1920-07-25T00:00:00+0000| 25 Jul 1920 | | Rosalind E Franklin was born in London, UKFranklin | Kings College London |
Witkin is best known for her work on DNA mutagenesis and DNA repair. She helped elucidate the first co-ordinated stress response. This she did by studying the response of bacteria to UV radiation. Witkins was one of the first few women to be elected to the US National Academy of Sciences, in 1977. She was also awarded the National Medal of Science in 2002. 1921-03-09T00:00:00+0000| 9 Mar 1921 | | Evelyn Witkin was born in New York City, USAWitkin | New York City |
Daly trained as a biochemist and was the first Black American woman to earn a doctorate in chemistry (from Columbia University, 1947). Her early research looked at the effects of cholesterol on the mechanisms of the heart, the effects sugars and other nutrients on the health of the arteries and the impact of advanced aged and hypertension on the circulatory system. This she did at Rockefeller Institute in New York. She subsequently joined Columbia University where she investigated how proteins are produced and organised in the cell. In addition to her scientific work, Daly was an ardent campaigner for getting minority students into medical school and graduate science programmes. 1921-04-16T00:00:00+0000| 16 Apr 1921 | | Marie M Daly was born in Corona, Queens, NY, USAMary Daly | Rockefeller Institute, Columbia University |
Yalow was a medical physicist who made her name by helping to develop the radioimmunoassay (RIA) technique. RIA uses two reagents. One is a radioisotope atom bound to a molecule of the target substance and the other is an antibody that will bind to the target substance when the two are in contact. Measurements are taken of the initial radioactivity of the mixture which is then added to a measured quantity of fluid, such as blood, that contains low concentrations of an unknown target substance. The test takes advantage of the fact that antibodies prefer to attach to non-radioactive molecules. Measurements are taken of the reduction in radioactivity of the antibody reagent to calculate the concentration of the target substance. The RIA method is now an important component in diagnostic tests, being used to measure the concentration of hormones, vitamins, viruses, enzymes, drugs and other substances. The technique transformed the diagnosis and treatment of diabetes and other hormonal problems related to growth, thyroid function and fertility. It is used to test for phenylketonuria in newborn babies, a rare inherited disorder that if left untreated can lead to intellectual disability, seizures, behavioural problems and mental disorder. In 1977 Yalow became the second woman in history to win the Nobel Prize for the physiology or medicine category. . It was awarded on the basis of her RIA work. 1921-07-19T00:00:00+0000| 19 Jul 1921 | | Rosalyn Yalow was born in New York, USAYalow | Veterans Administration Hospital |
Koshland was an immunologist who was a major pioneer in the field of antibodies. Her work was instrumental in showing antibodies to be discrete entities and knowledge about the origins of antibody specificity. In the 1960s, she demonstrated that the efficiency and effectiveness with which antibodies can combat foreign invaders is determined by their different amino acid compositions. By the 1990s she had unravelled the process that accompanies and directs B cell activation and maturation. A major role-model for other women scientists, Koshland was nearly not awarded her PhD because her professor thought it would be a waste because she was pregnant. 1921-10-25T00:00:00+0000| 25 Oct 1921 | | Marian E Koshland was born in New Haven, Connecticut, USAKoshland | |
Datta was a microbial geneticist who showed that multi-antibiotic resistance was transferred between bacteria by plasmids. She first made the connection in 1959 after investigating a severe outbreak of Salmonella typhimurium phage-type 27 at Hammersmith Hospital where she worked. This involved an examination of 309 cultures, of which she found 25 were drug resistant, eight of which were resistant to Streptomycin which had been used to treat the patients. She concluded that the antibiotic resistance developed over time because the earlier cultures of the salmonella typhimurium infection (from the start of the outbreak) were not drug resistant. 1922-09-17T00:00:00+0000| 17 Sep 1922 | | Naomi Datta was born in London, UKDatta | Hammersmith Hospital |
Lederberg is best known for having discovered the lambda phage, an indispensable tool for studying gene regulation and genetic recombination. She also invented the replica plating technique which is pivotal to tracking antibiotic resistance. 1922-12-18T00:00:00+0000| 18 Dec 1922 | | Esther Lederberg was born in Bronx, New York, USAEsther Lederberg | Wisconsin University |
Askonas was a leading figure in immunology whose work helped to establish the basic mechanisms and components of immune system. Together with colleagues she developed one of the first systems for the cloning of antibody-forming B cells in vivo, some of the earliest monoclonal antibodies. She was also one of the first scientists to isolate and clone virus specific T lymphocytes, laying the foundation for defining different influenza sub-sets and improving vaccines.1923-04-01T00:00:00+0000| 1 Apr 1923 | | Brigitte Askonas was born in Vienna, AustriaAskonas | Vienna |
Dayhoff is known as the founder of bioinformatics. This she did by pioneering the application of mathematics and computational techniques to the sequencing of proteins and nucleic acids and establishing the first publicly available database for research in the area. 1925-03-11T00:00:00+0000| 11 Mar 1925 | | Margaret Dayhoff was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USADayhoff | Philadelphia |
McLaren was a major pioneer in the development of IVF. She was also the key architect behind the Human Embryology and Fertilisation Act (1990) which provided the world’s first legal guidelines for infertility treatment and all human embryo research. Following this Act, McLaren served for 10 years on the Human Fertility and Embryology Authority, established in 1991, and became a critical player in debates about the governance of embryonic stem cells for therapy. She also made history in 1991 by becoming the Royal Society’s first woman officer.
1927-04-26T00:00:00+0000| 26 Apr 1927 | | Anne McLaren was born in London, UKMcLaren | University College London, Edinburgh University, Cambridge University |
The Cori's work helped identify the cyclical process that muscle cells use to make and store energy. Their insights into the process of sugar metabolism opened up new understandings of diabetes and the means to treat it. 1929-01-01T00:00:00+0000| 1929 | | Carl and Gerty Cori outlined the body's metabolic pathway to break down some carbohydrates, like glycogen, and synthesise othersCarl Cori, Gerty Cori | Roswell Park Cancer Institute |
Stahl is a molecular biologist and geneticist who helped to elucidate how DNA is replicated. Together with Matthew Medelsohn, Stahl showed that the double-stranded helix molecule of DNA separates into two strands and that each of these strands serve as a template for the production of a new strand of DNA. They did this in 1958. Following this work, Stahl did extensive work on bacteriophages, viruses that infect bacteria, and their genetic recombination. In 1964 he established that DNA in T4 bacteriophages is circular rather than linear. Eight years later he and his wife, Mary, found a DNA sequence in the lambda bacteriophage necessary to initiate genetic recombination. This laid the foundation for genetic engineering. 1929-10-08T00:00:00+0000| 8 Oct 1929 | | Franklin W Stahl was born in Boston, Massachusetts, USAStahl | California Institute of Technology, University of Missouri, University of Oregon |
Griffin was a leading expert on viruses that cause cancer. She was the first woman appointed to Royal Postgraduate Medical School, Hammersmith Hospital. In 1980 she completed the sequence of the poliovirus, the longest piece of eukaryotic DNA to be sequenced at that time. She devoted her life to understanding the Epstein-Barr virus, the cause of Burkitt's Lymphoma, a deadly form of cancer. The virus is also now thought to cause multiple sclerosis. 1930-01-23T00:00:00+0000| 23 Jan 1930 | | Beverly Griffin was born in Delhi, Louisiana, USAGriffin | Imperial College |
June Almeida was a major pioneer of electron microscopy which helped transform knowledge about virology. She is best known for taking the first electron micrograph of the rubella virus and a human coronavirus. Her work also helped uncover the structure of the hepatitis B virus which paved the way to developing a vaccine against hepatitis B. She also published some of the first high quality images of HIV. 1930-10-05T00:00:00+0000| 5 Oct 1930 | | June Almeida was born in Glasgow, ScotlandAlmeida | Hammersmith Postgraduate Medical School |
Youyou is a Chinese pharmaceutical chemist who discovered artemisinin and dihydroartemisinin, used to treat malaria. She made the discovery while working as head of the research group at the Institute of Chinese Materia Medica for Project 523. This project was initiated by the Chinese government at the height of the Vietnam War to help find a treatment for malaria that was claiming the lives of numerous soldiers among the North Vietnam allied forces. Youyou and her team found the treatment after testing 380 extracts from about 200 plant species for their capability to eliminate malaria parasites in the blood of infected mice. In 2015 Youyou became the first female citizen of the People's Republic of China to win a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine which was awarded for her work on malaria. 1930-12-30T00:00:00+0000| 30 Dec 1930 | | Tu Youyou was born in Zhejiang, ChinaYouyou | Peking University Medical School |
This was based on their experiments with the variegated colour pattern of maize kernels which showed that some genetic elements on the chromosome are capable of movement. They published their results in 'A Correlation of Cytological and Genetical Crossing-Over in Zea Mays',PNAS, 7/8 (1931), 492-97. 1931-08-01T00:00:00+0000| August 1931 | | Barbara McClintock and Harriet Creighton, her graduate student, provided first experimental proof that genes are positioned on chromosomesMcClintock, Creighton | Cornell University |
1934-01-01T00:00:00+0000| 1934 | | Irène Joliot-Curie and Frederic Joliot, her husband, created radioactive nitrogen out of boronJoliot-Curie | |
Curie was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize, in 1903, and the first person to win it twice, in 1911. She developed techniques for isolating radioactive isotopes and discovered the two elements, polonium and radium. Curie also pioneered the use of radioactive isotopes to treat cancer and developed mobile radiography mobile unites to provide X-ray services in field hospitals during World War I. Throughout her life Curie experienced major challenges because of her sex. Denied a regular university education in Poland, her home country, because she was a woman, she had to study in France to get her degree. In 1903 the French Academy of Sciences tried to keep her name off its list of Nobel Prize nominees and the Swedish Academy of Sciences asked her not to attend the Nobel ceremony in 1911 because of negative publicity surrounding her personal life.1934-07-04T00:00:00+0000| 4 Jul 1934 | | Marie Curie diedCurie | University of Paris, Radium Institute |
The observation was reported by Gregory Pincus and Barbara Saunders, 'The comparative behavior of mammalian eggs in vivo and in vitro: VI. The maturation of human ovarian ova', Anat. Rec., 75 (1939), 537–45.1939-01-01T00:00:00+0000| 1939 | | Human occytes shown to complete meiosis in vitroPincus, Saunders | Harvard University |
Yonath is a biochemist who won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2009 for helping to map the structure of ribosomes, the molecule that helps translate RNA into protein. She started the research in the 1970s using x-ray crystallography. By 2001 she had worked out the complete high-resolution of structures of both ribosomal subunits and discovered a region important to the process of polypeptide polymerisation. In addition to this work Yonath had elucidated the modes of action of over 20 different antibiotics that target the ribosome, which has provided insights into the mechanisms of drug resistance and antibiotic sensitivity. 1939-06-22T00:00:00+0000| 22 Jun 1939 | | Ada E Yonath was born in Jerusalem, Palestine (now Israel)Yonath | Weizmann Institute |
Wollstein was a pioneering American paediatric pathologist at a time when women rarely worked in the field of pathology. One of her key contributions was the development of antiserum therapies to treat both paediatric and adult infectious diseases, including a potent polyvalent antiserum to treat meningitis. She was the first woman to ever be elected a member of the American Pediatric Society. In 1904 she joined the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research where she did important experimental work on polio, pneumonia and other diseases. Her work was important for showing that mumps could be viral in nature.1939-09-30T00:00:00+0000| 30 Sep 1939 | | Martha Wollstein diedWollstein | Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research |
The drug was produced from a rabbit anti-serum. It was the first effective treatment. Alexander continued to refine the treatment through the early 1940s. Her work led to a significant reduction in infant mortality from the disease, reducing the mortality rate to 20%. 'Response to antiserums in meningococcic infections of human beings and mice,' American Journal of Diseases of Children, 58/4 (1939), 746-52.1939-10-01T00:00:00+0000| 1 Oct 1939 | | Hattie Alexander reported the first successful cure of infant suffering from influenzal meningitis Alexander | Columbia University |
The team that undertook the work included Martin Dawson, the clinician and co-ordinator of the project, Glady Hobby who handled the microbiology work and Karl Meyer who did the chemical extraction work. The work was reported in GL Hobby, MH Dawson, et al, 'Effect of the rate of growth of bacteria on action of penicillin', Experimental Biology and Medicine, 56/2 (June 1 1944), 181-4.1940-09-01T00:00:00+0000| September 1940 | | First fermentation work on penicillin undertaken in the US to up-scale productionDawson, Hobby, Meyer | Columbia University |
Witkin discovered the radiation resistance after exposing E coli stain B bacteria to high doses of UV light. She subsequently worked out that the resistance was due to a particular genetic mutation in the bacteria strain which inhibited cell division. Witkin did the work under the guidance of Milislav Demerec at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. She published her findings in EM Witkin, 'A case of inherited resistance to radiation in bacteria', Genetics, 31 (1946) 236; EM Witkin, 'Inherited Differences in Sensitivity to Radiation in Escherichia Coli', PNAS USA, 32/3 (1946), 59–68. Witkin's work laid the foundation for showing that cell division is inhibited when DNA is damaged and was the first demonstration of a cell checkpoint. 1944-01-01T00:00:00+0000| 1944 | | Evelyn Witkin discovered radiation resistance in bactieraWitkin | Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory |
The work was undertaken by Dorothy Hodgkin and CH (Harry) Carlise. It was published in CH Carlisle, D Crowfoot, 'The Crystal Structure of Cholesteryl Iodide'. Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 184/996 (1945, 64. 1945-01-01T00:00:00+0000| 1945 | | First three-dimensional structure of a steroid (cholesteryl iodide) publishedD Hodgkin, Carlisle | Oxford University |
This was worked out by Dorothy Hodgkin and colleagues. Contrary to scientific opinion, the team showed that penicillin contained a beta-actam ring. Because wartime work on penicillin was secret, the structure of penicillin was only published in 1949. It appeared in D. Crowfoot, CW Bunn, BW Rogers-Low and A Turner Jones, The Chemistry of Penicillin (Princeton University Press, 1949) 310. 1945-05-01T00:00:00+0000| May 1945 | | Structure of penicillin determined using x-ray crystallographyD Hodgkin, Bunn, Rogers-Low, Turner Jones | Oxford University |
King is a human geneticist who studies the interplay between genetics and the environment on human disease. She is best known for having identified BRCA1, a single gene responsible for many breast and ovarian cancers. Her technique for identifying the BRCA1 gene is now used for studying many other diseases. She was also responsible for the development of a technique, using mitrochondial DNA and human leucocyte antigen, for genetically identifying the remains of missing people. 1946-02-27T00:00:00+0000| 27 Feb 1946 | | Mary-Claire King was born in Illinois, USAKing | Illinois |
1947-01-01T00:00:00+0000| 1947 | | Dorothy Hodgkin elected to Royal SocietyD Hodgkin | |
H E Alexander, G Leidy, 'Mode of action of streptomycin on type B H. Influenzae', Journal of Experimental Medicine, 85/4 (1985), 329-38.1947-05-31T00:00:00+0000| 31 May 1947 | | Hattie Alexander and Grace Leidy report antimicrobial resistance in patients treated with streptomycin for H. InfluenzaeAlexander, Leidy | Columbia University |
Barré-Sinoussi is a virologist who shared the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 2008 for her contributions to identifying the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) as the cause of AIDS. She carried out this work in the 1980s at the Pasteur Institute as part of her research into retroviruses. Barré-Sinoussi has been at the forefront of efforts to develop a vaccine against HIV and a cure for the disease. Serving as the president of the International AIDS Society between 2012 and 2016 and working with WHO, Barré-Sinoussi has collaborated closely with scientists from many resource-limited countries in Africa and Asia.
1947-07-30T00:00:00+0000| 30 Jul 1947 | | Francoise Barré-Sinoussi born in Paris, FranceBarre-Sinoussi | Pasteur Institute |
This was based on McClintock's finding that two genes that controlled for pigmentation in maize could move along the chromosome to a different site and that these changes affected the behaviour of neighbouring genes. She suggested that this explained new mutations in pigmentation and other characteristics. 1948-01-01T00:00:00+0000| 1948 - 1950 | | McClintock developed her theory of genetic transpositionMcClintock | Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory |
Lindquist was a molecular biologist whose work on yeast proteins opened up new avenues for understanding gene functioning and degenerative diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's as well for drug resistance, cancer and prion biology. Most of her career was devoted to looking at how proteins change shape during cell division to carry out genetic functions. She demonstrated that protein-folding errors can occur in all species and that the biological changes this can cause can be passed from one offspring to the next without the need for RNA or DNA. Linquist was the first demale director of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at MIT. 1949-06-05T00:00:00+0000| 5 Jun 1949 | | Susan Lindquist was born in Chicago, Illiniois, USALinquist | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
Davies is the first woman to take on the role of Chief Medical Officer of England in the 165 years of its the position's history.1949-11-24T00:00:00+0000| 24 Nov 1949 | | Sally Davies bornDavies | |
The lambda phage has become a key tool in molecular biology and is important for genetic engineering. It has the advantage that it can be easily grown in E Coli and is not pathogenic except in the case of bacteria. Lederberg's discovery paved the way to understanding the transfer of genetic material between bacteria, the mechanisms involved in gene regulation and how piece of DNA break apart and recombine to make new genes. EM Lederberg, 'Lysogenicity in Escherichia coli strain K-12', Microbial Genetics Bulletin, 1, (1950), 5-9. 1950-01-01T00:00:00+0000| January 1950 | | Esther Lederberg discovered the lambda phageEsther Lederberg | University of Wisconsin |
HE Alexander and G Leidy, 'Transformation of Type Specificity of H. influenzae,' American Pediatric Society, French Lick, May 10, 1950.1950-05-10T00:00:00+0000| 10 May 1950 | | Hattie E Alexander and Grace Leidy reported success using DNA to alter the hereditary characteristics of Hemophilus influenzaeAlexander, Leidy | Columbia University |
Noted by Salvador Luria and his graduate student Mary Human while conducting experiments into the break-up of DNA in phage-infected bateria.1952-01-01T00:00:00+0000| 1952 | | First observation of the modification of viruses by bacteriaLuria, Human | University of Illinois |
By transferring tumours to chick embryos, Levi-Montalcini noticed that certain cancerous tissue caused extremely rapid growth of nerve cells. She described it as 'like rivulets of water flowing steadily over a bed of stones.' R Levi-Montalcini, 'Effects of mouse tumor transplantation on the nervous system', Annals of the NY Academy of Sciences, 55/2 (1952), 330-44.1952-08-08T00:00:00+0000| 1952 | | Rita Levi-Montalcini announced isolation of nerve-growth factorLevi-Montalcini | Washington University in St. Louis |
The finding was made by Alfred Hershey and Martha Chase, American geneticists, while experimenting with the T2 bacteriophage, a virus that infects bacteria. They demonstrated that when bacteriophages, which are composed of DNA and protein, infect bacteria, their DNA enters the host bacterial cell, but most of their protein does not. Their work confirmed that DNA is the genetic material which refuted the long-held assumption that proteins carried the information for inheritance.1952-09-28T00:00:00+0000| 28 Sep 1952 | | Experiments proved DNA, and not proteins, hold the genetic codeHershey, Chase | Carnegie Institution of Washington |
Hochmair-Desoyer is an electrical engineer who helped create the world's first micro-electric multi-channel cochlear implant. Developed in 1977, the implant enables the user to not only hear sounds but also to understand speech. Since 2000 Hochmair-Desoyer has co-founded a number of medical device companies working to help with hearing loss. In 2013 she was awarded the Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award. 1953-01-01T00:00:00+0000| 1 Jan 1953 | | Ingeborg Hochmair-Desoyer was born in Vienna, AustriaHochmair-Desoyer | Vienna, Austria |
The drug emerged out of studies of organic compounds called purines conducted by Gertrude Elion with George Hitchings. Elion hypothesised that by preventing purines entering the metabolic pathway that leads to DNA synthesis it would be possible to stop the production of DNA and thereby stop cell growth. Elion synthesised a forerunner of 6-mercaptopurine in 1949, which was found to inhibit the growth of leukaemia in mice. 1953-01-01T00:00:00+0000| 1953 | | FDA approved 6-mercaptopurine as treatment for childhood leukaemiaElion, Hitching | Wellcome Research Laboratories |
One paper, published by Rosalind Franklin with her PhD student Ray Gosling, included an image produced with x-ray crystallography, which showed DNA to have regularly repeating helical structure. Known as photograph 51, this image had been previously been shown by Maurice Wilkins, without Franklin's permission, to James Watson, who, together with Francis Crick, used it to develop their double-helix model of DNA which was also published in Nature. Calculations from the photograph provided crucial parameters for the size of the helix and its structure, all of which were critical for Watson and Crick's molecular modelling work. Crick and Watson depicted DNA as having a double helix in which A always pairs with T, and C always with G. Their final model represented a correction of an earlier model in the light of comments made by Franklin that the hydrophilic backbones should not go at the centre of the molecule, as Watson and Crick had originally assumed, but go on the outside of the molecule where they could interact with water. The three papers were published in Nature, 171 (25 April 1953), 737-41.1953-04-25T00:00:00+0000| 25 Apr 1953 | | Nature published three papers showing the molecular structure of DNA to be a double helixFranklin, Gosling, Crick, Watson, Wilkins. Stokes, Wilson | Birkbeck College, Kings College London, Cambridge University |
Sabin was a pioneering American medical scientist who was the first woman to be appointed a full professor at Johns Hopkins University. She was also the first woman to be elected to the National Academy of Sciences and to head up a department at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research. For many years she was involved in the investigation of the lymphatic system. She demonstrated that lymphatic vessels develop from a special layer of cells in certain fetal veins. She also made many discoveries relating to the origin and development of blood vessels and blood cells.1953-10-03T00:00:00+0000| 3 Oct 1953 | | Florence Sabin diedFlorence Sabin | |
Known as contact inhibition of locomotion (CIL), this process is essential for normal development and is needed for wound healing and responses to infection. Any disruption to the process can lead to or exacerbate human diseases like cancer, atherosclerosis and chronic inflammatory disorders. The CIL process was first observed by Michael Abercrombie and Joan Heaysman who published their work in 'Observations on the social behaviour of cells in tissue culture: II. ‘Monolayering’ of fibroblasts', Experimental Cell Research, 6 (1954), 293–306. 1954-01-01T00:00:00+0000| 1954 | | Cells observed to stop moving on contact with other cells Abercrombie, Heaysman | University College London |
The discovery was made by Paul C. Zamecnik with his colleagues Mahlon Hoagland and Mary Stephenson. tRNA is essential to protein synthesis. The molecule helps shuttle amino acids to the ribosome, the cell's protein factory. The work was subsequently published in MB Hoagland, ML Stephenson, JF Scott, ML Stephenson, LI Hecht, PC Zamecnik, 'A soluble ribonucleic acid intermediate in protein synthesis', Journal Biological Chemistry, 231 (1958), 241-57. 1956-01-01T00:00:00+0000| 1956 | | Transfer RNA (tRNA) discoveredZamecnik, Hoagland, Stephenson, | Harvard University |
1956-01-01T00:00:00+0000| 1956 | | Alice Stewart demonstrated the link between x-rays of pregnant women and childhood cancerStewart | |
Building on the work of her parents, Marie and Pierre Curie, Irène Joliot-Curie managed to produce radioactive nitrogen from boron, radioactive isotopes of phosphorus from aluminium, and silicon from magnesium. This facilitated the application of radioactive materials for use in medicine. In 1935 she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1935 for her work on radioactive isotopes which today form the basis of much biomedical research and cancer treatment today.
1956-03-17T00:00:00+0000| 17 Mar 1956 | | Irène Joliot-Curie diedJoliot-Curie | |
The structure was worked out by Dorothy Hodgkin and her team using x-ray crystallography. The project was a major challenge because of the large size of the molecule and the fact that its atoms were largely unaccounted for. Dorothy Hodgkin, Jennifer Kamper, Maureen Mackay, Jennuy Pickworth, Kenneth N Trueblood, John G White, 'Structure of Vitamin B12', Nature, 178 (1956), 64-66. The achievement was described by Lawrence Bragg as significant 'as breaking the sound barrier'. It paved the way to the synthesis of the vitamin which is now given to patients with pernicious anaemia., 1956-07-14T00:00:00+0000| 14 Jul 1956 | | Complete structure of vitamin B12 publishedHodgkin, Kamper, MacKay, Pickworth, Trueblood, White | Oxford University |
Gerty Cori, nee Radnitz, was the third woman to win the Nobel Prize for Medicine and the first woman in America to do so. She shared the prize in 1947 with her husband Cari Cori, for discovering how the body metabolises glycogen, which is important to how the body stores energy. Born into a Jewish Czech family, Cori studied medicine at the Karl-Ferdinands-Universität in Prague, an unusual path for a woman at the time. Throughout her career Cori experienced difficulties because she was a woman. In 1921 she was threatened with dismissal by the director of Roswell Park Cancer Institute if she continued her collaborative research with her husband, Later she struggled to be appointed full-professor at Washington University St Louuis, a position she gained only months before she won the Nobel Prize.1957-10-26T00:00:00+0000| 26 Oct 1957 | | Gerty Theresa Cori diedG Cori | Washington University in St Louis |
Franklin was a British biophysicist who provided the first evidence of the double helix structure of DNA. She captured the structure in photo 51, an image she made of DNA using x-ray crystallography in 1952. Data from the photo was pivotal to Crick and Watson's building of their DNA double helical structure of DNA which they won the Nobel Prize in 1962. Sadly Franklin died too young, age 37, to receive the Nobel Prize for her work. 1958-04-16T00:00:00+0000| 16 Apr 1958 | | Rosalind E Franklin diedFranklin | Kings College London |
A trained botanist and geologist, Stopes was the first female academic to get a position at the University of Manchester where she conducted research on plant palaeontology and coal classification. She is best known for her campaigning work to make birth control available to women. In 1921 she helped to open the first clinic in London that offered birth control advice and dispensed contraception to poor mothers.1958-10-02T00:00:00+0000| 2 Oct 1958 | | Marie Stopes diedStopes | University of Manchester, University College London |
Originally developed to measure insulin levels, the radioimmunoassay (RIA) provides a highly sensitive means of measuring incredibly low concentrations of many different substances in solutions. It does this by taking advantage of the antigen-antibody reaction and radioactive materials. The technique is now used for a variety of purposes, including screening for the hepatitis virus in blood, determining effective dosage levels of drugs and antibiotics, detecting foreign substances in the blood and correcting hormone levels in infertile couples. RS Yalolw, SA Berson, 'Assay of plasma in human subjects by immunological methods', Nature, 184 (1959), 1648-49. 1959-11-21T00:00:00+0000| 21 Nov 1959 | | Rosalyn Yalow and Soloman Berson published the radioimmunoassay method opening up a new era in immunology and diagnosticsYalow, Berson | Veterans Administration Hospital |
McClintock noticed the phenomenon during her experiments with maize. She reported her findings to the annual symposium at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. 1961-01-01T00:00:00+0000| 1961 | | 'Jumping genes', transposable elements, discovered by Barbara McClintockMcLintock | Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory |
Greider is best known for her discovery of telomerase, an enzyme made up of protein and RNA subunits that help elongate and protect chromosomes. The enzyme is found in fetal tissues, adult germ cells and also tumour cells. Greider made the discovery in 1984 when she was a graduate student of Elizabeth Blackburn. She was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 2009 on the back of this work. 1961-04-15T00:00:00+0000| 15 Apr 1961 | | Carol W Greider was born in San Diego CA, USAGreider | Johns Hopkins University |
Lorraine Kraus incubated bone marrow cells from a patient with sickle-cell anaemia with DNA from healthy donor. L.M. Kraus, ‘Formation of different haemoglobins in tissue culture of human bone marrow treated with human deoxyribonucleic acid’, Nature, 4807 (1961) 1055-57. 1961-12-16T00:00:00+0000| 16 Dec 1961 | | First successful direct incorporation of functional DNA into a human cellKraus | University of Tennessee |
Werner Arber, Swiss microbiologist and geneticist, and his doctoral student Daisy Dussoix proposed that bacteria produce restriction and modification enzymes to counter invading viruses. They published their findings in 'Host specificity of DNA produced by Escherichia coli I and II', Journal Molecular Biology, 5 (1962), 18–36 and 37-49.1962-01-23T00:00:00+0000| 23 Jan 1962 | | Idea of restriction and modification enzymes bornArber, Dussoix | University of Geneva |
H Alexander and K Sprunt, 'Invasion of mammalian cells by ribonucleic acid (RNA) isolated from poliovirus', 10th International Congress of Pediatrics, Lisbon, Portugal, September 9-15, 1962.1962-09-01T00:00:00+0000| September 1962 | | Hattie Alexander and Katherine Sprunt demonstrated that the RNA of the poliovirus can independently infect human cells Alexander, Sprunt | Columbia University |
The finding was based on 10 years of research conducted by Elizabeth Stern with 10,5000 women who used a family planning clinic in Los Angeles. E Stern, PM Neely, 'Carcinoma and Dysplasia of the Cervix: A comparison of rates for new and returning populations', Acta Cytol, 7 (1963), 357-61.1963-01-01T00:00:00+0000| 1963 | | First report linking a specific virus (herpes simplex virus) to a specific cancer (cervical cancer)Stern | University of California Los Angeles |
May-Britt Moser is best known the pioneering research she did with her husband, Edvard, on the brain's mechanism for representing space. In 2005 they discovered a type of nerve cell near the hippocampus that helps with navigation. They were awarded the Nobel Prize in 2014 on the back of this work. 1963-01-04T00:00:00+0000| 4 Jan 1963 | | May-Britt Moser born in Fosnavag, NorwayMay-Britt Moser | Norwegian University of Science and Technology |
Dick originally trained as a zoologist and then completed a medical degree. She made her name studying scarlet fever after she herself caught the disease. In 1923 she and her husband George Dick, worked out that the disease was caused by a toxin released by a strain of Streptococcus bacteria. This enabled them to create an antitoxin for treatment and vaccine for prevention. She also devised a technique to prevent cross infection of scarlet fever among infants. Known as the Dick Aseptic Nursery Technique this promoted strict sterilisation and aseptic procedures.1963-08-21T00:00:00+0000| 21 Aug 1963 | | Gladys Rowena H Dick diedGladys Dick | University of Chicago, John R. McCormick Institute for Infectious Diseases, St Luke's Hospital |
1964-02-19T00:00:00+0000| 19 Feb 1964 | | Jennifer Doudna born Washington, DC, USADoudna | |
Willis was a British haematologist who discovered a nutritional factor in yeast, now known as folic acid, which prevents and cures macrocytic anaemia, a life-threatening condition that can develop in pregnancy. The disease is particularly prevalent in poor women in the tropics who have inadequate diets. Willis made her discovery while working in India. Noticing that wealthy women seemed to suffer less from the symptoms of anaemia than poor women, Willis hypothesised that the disease was linked to nutrition. She found that liver supplements and Marmite, a spread high in vitamin B made from brewer's yeast could combat anaemia in rats. This led her to successfully treating anaemia in pregnant Indian women by using liver supplements and Marmite. Her results were published in 1931.1964-04-16T00:00:00+0000| 16 Apr 1964 | | Lucy Willis diedWillis | Royal Free Hospital, Haffkine Institute |
Witkin proposed that UV-induced block of cell-division was due to the inhibition of a DNA replication enzyme. EM Witkin, 'Photoreversal and dark repair of mutations to prototrophy induced by ultraviolet light in photoreactivable and non-photoreactivable strains of Escherichia coli', Mutat Res, 106 (1964), 22–36.1964-05-01T00:00:00+0000| May 1964 | | Evelyn Witkin discovered that UV mutagenesis in E. coli could be reversed through dark exposureWitkin | Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory |
Hodgkin was awarded the Prize in recognition of the work she did to determine the three-dimensional structure of penicillin (1945) and Vitamin B12 (1948). She achieved this feat by advancing the technique of X-ray crystallography for use on proteins. Hodgkin was the third woman to win the Nobel Prize. She subsequently worked out the three-dimensional structure of insulin in 1969, a project that took her 35 years to complete. 1964-12-10T00:00:00+0000| 10 Dec 1964 | | Dorothy Hodgkin became the first British woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry Hodgkin | Oxford University |
The book contained all protein sequences known to-date. It was the result of a collective effort led by Margaret Dayhoff to co-ordinate the ever-growing amount of information about protein sequences and their biochemical function. It provided the model for GenBank and many other molecular databases. 1965-01-01T00:00:00+0000| 1965 | | First comprehensive protein sequence and structure computer data published as 'Atlas of Protein Sequence and Structure'Dayhoff, Ledley, Eck | National Biomedical Research Foundation, Georgetown University |
Drug resistant bacteria were first identified in Japan and then in Britain. Some of the earliest observations of this phenomenon were made by Naomi Datta who in 1962-63 showed that structures with some similarity to phages could transfer drug-resistance genes. Ephraim Anderson, director of the Enteric Reference Laboratory in Colindale, London, subsequently showed that genetic factors endowing resistance to major drugs used against human disease could be transferred by plasmids from minor pathogens. A summary of the work was published in ES Anderson, 'Origin of transferable drug-resistance in the enterobacteriaceae', British Medical Journal, 27 Nov 1965, 1289-91. 1965-11-27T00:00:00+0000| 27 Nov 1965 | | Plasmids noted to carry genes conveying antibiotic resistance in bacteriaAnderson, Datta | |
Allopurinol was originally developed by Gertrude Elion and George Hitchings. The drug works by inhibiting uric acid synthesis. 1966-08-01T00:00:00+0000| August 1966 | | FDA approved allopurinol for goutElion, Hitching | Wellcome Research Laboratories |
Tu did this as part of the Chinese national project against malaria. In the first stage of the project her team investigated more than 2,000 Chinese herbal preparations and identified 640 with possible anti-malarial activities. More than 380 were evaluated in a mouse model of malaria. 1967-01-01T00:00:00+0000| 1967 | | Youyou Tu started working on extraction and isolation of Chinese herbal materials with antimalarial propertiesTu | China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences |
McCormick was one of the first American women to earn a biology degree from MIT. She went on to become a prominent suffragist and philanthropist who played a significant role in the development of the first oral contraceptive pill. She provided $2 million of her own money for the development of the pill, first approved for gynaecological disorders in 1957. McCormick continued to provide funding to improve birth control once the pill was approved.1967-12-28T00:00:00+0000| 28 Dec 1967 | | Katherine McCormick diedMcCormick | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
The drug was developed by Gertrude Elion in 1957 as part of her development of purine analogues. 1968-03-01T00:00:00+0000| March 1968 | | FDA approved azathioprine, an immunosuppressant to prevent rejection of kidney transplantsElion | Wellcome Research Laboratories |
Alexander was an American paediatrician and microbiologist. In the 1940s she developed the first effective treatment against Haemophilus influenzae (Hib), a major killer of infants. Her treatment helped reduce mortality from the disease from nearly 100 per cent to less than 25 per cent. It involved the combination of antiserum therapy with sulfa drugs. Alexander was also one of the first scientists to identify and study antibiotics resistance, which emerged out of her search for antibiotics to treat Hib. She worked out that the resistance was due to random genetic mutations in DNA that were positively selected through evolution.1968-06-24T00:00:00+0000| 24 Jun 1968 | | Hattie Elizabeth Alexander diedAlexander | Columbia University |
Sharma is a leading figure in the field of cancer immunology. Her research focuses on understanding the mechanisms and pathways within the immune system that are responsible for tumour rejection so as to improve the efficacy of cancer immunotherapies. She was the first to show the importance of the inducible co-stimulator (ICOS) protein in the destruction of cancer cells. 1970-06-26T00:00:00+0000| 26 Jun 1970 | | Padmanee Sharma born in Gerogetown, GuyanaSharma | MD Anderson Cancer Center |
Brigette Askonas, a Canadian biochemist, Alan Williamson, a British immunologist, and Brian Wright cloned B cells in vivo using spleen cells from mice immunised with haptenated carrier antigen. BA Askonas, AR Williamson, BEG Wright, 'Selection of a single antibody-forming cell clone and its propagation in syngeneic mice', PNAS, 67/3 (1970), 1398-14031970-11-01T00:00:00+0000| November 1970 | | Means developed for cloning B cells that produce single antibodies with known specificityAskonas, Williamson, Wright | National Institute for Medical Research |
This was done in Dale Kaiser's laboratory by Douglas Berg together with Janet Mertz and David Jackson1971-01-01T00:00:00+0000| 1971 | | First plasmid bacterial cloning vector constructedBerg, Mertz, Jackson | Stanford University |
Robert Pollack contacted Paul Berg to raise concerns about the potential biohazards of experiments Mertz, his doctoral research student, planned to do involving the introduction of genes from the oncovirus SV40 in the human gut bacteria, E. Coli. Following this Berg self-imposed a moratorium on experiments in his laboratory involving the cloning of SV40 in E-Coli.1971-06-01T00:00:00+0000| June 1971 | | Janet Mertz forced to halt experiment to clone recombinant DNA in bacteria after safety concerns raisedMertz, Berg, Pollack | Stanford University |
The technique uses antibodies to detect antibodies. It was first conceived by two Swedish scientists, Peter Perlman and Eva Engvall at Stockholm University. They published their method in 1971 as 'Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Quantitative assay of immunoglobulin G', Immunochemistry, 8/9, 871-4. 1971-09-01T00:00:00+0000| September 1971 | | Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) technique first publishedPerlmann, Engvall | Stockholm University |
The power of restriction enzymes to cut DNA was demonstrated by Kathleen Danna, a graduate student, with Daniel Nathans, her doctoral supervisor, at Johns Hopkins University. They published the technique in 'Specific cleavage of simian virus 40 DNA by restriction endonuclease of Hemophilus influenzae', PNAS USA, 68/12 (1971), 2913-17.1971-12-01T00:00:00+0000| December 1971 | | First experiments published demonstrating the use of restriction enzymes to cut DNADanna, Nathans | Johns Hopkins University |
1972-01-01T00:00:00+0000| 1972 | | Beverly Griffin appointed head of nuclear acids research at Imperial Cancer Research FundGriffin | Imperial Cancer Research Fund Laboratories |
This followed positive results from clinical trials showing it could be effective for treating malaria. 1972-01-01T00:00:00+0000| 1972 | | Youyou Tu and her team isolated and purified artemisinin (qinghaosu)Tu | China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences |
It was based on their finding that when DNA is cleaved with EcoRI, a restriction enzyme, it has sticky ends. JE Mertz, RW Davis, 'Cleavage of DNA by RI restriction endonuclease generates cohesive ends', PNAS, 69, 3370–3374 (1972). 1972-11-01T00:00:00+0000| November 1972 | | Janet Mertz and Ronald Davis published first easy-to-use technique for constructing recombinant DNA
showed that when DNA is cleaved with EcoRI, a restriction enzyme, it has sticky endsMertz, Davis | Stanford University |
1973-01-01T00:00:00+0000| 1973 | | Brigette Askonas elected Fellow of the Royal SocietyAskonas | |
The phenomenon was worked out by Evelyn Witkin with Miroslav Radman. They showed that the repair is induced DNA damage which activates a co-ordinated cellular response. Their key papers on the matter were EM Witkin, DL George, 'Ultraviolet mutagenesis in polA and UvrA polA derivatives of Escherichia coli B-R: evidence for an inducible error-prone repair system', Genetics, 73/Suppl 73 (1973), 91–10; M Radman, 'SOS repair hypothesis: Phenomenology of an inducible DNA repair which is accompanied by mutagenesis', Basic Life Science, 5A (1975), 355–67; EM Witkin, 'Ultraviolet mutagenesis and inducible DNA repair in Escherichia coli', Bacteriol Review, 40/4 (1976), 869–907. 1973-01-01T00:00:00+0000| 1973 - 1976 | | Discovery of DNA repair mechanism in bacteria - the SOS responseWitkin, Radman | Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Free University of Brussels |
The work was carried out by Stanley Cohen and Annie Chang at Stanford University in collaboration with Herbert Boyer and Robert Helling at the University of California San Francisco. They managed to splice sections of viral DNA and bacterial DNA with the same restriction enzyme to create a plasmid with dual antibiotic resistance. They then managed to insert this recombinant DNA molecule into the DNA of bacteria to express the new recombinant DNA. The technique showed it was possible to reproduce recombinant DNA in bacteria. It was published in SN Cohen, ACY Chang, HW Boyer, RB Belling, 'Construction of Biologically Functional Bacterial Plasmids In Vitro', PNAS USA, 10/11 (1973), 3240-3244.
1973-11-01T00:00:00+0000| 1 Nov 1973 | | First time DNA was successfully transferred from one life form to anotherCohen, Chang, Boyer | Stanford University, University of California San Francisco |
Apgar was an American obstetrical anaesthesiologist who introduced the first test for assessing the health of newborn babies in 1953. Known as the Apgar Score. this test assesses the baby's heart rate, respiration, colour, muscle tone and reflect irritability. During the rubella pandemic of 1964-65, Apgar became a strong advocate for universal vaccination to prevent mother to child transmission of the disease. She also promoted the effective use of Rh testing to identify women at risk of transmitting maternal antibodies against they placenta which can cause life-threatening anaemia in the baby. Apgar was the first woman to head a specialty division at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center and Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.1974-08-07T00:00:00+0000| 7 Aug 1974 | | Virginia Apgar diedApgar | Columbia University |
Her thesis focused on methods to isolate and characterise mutant variants of SV40
1975-01-01T00:00:00+0000| January 1975 | | Mertz completed her doctorate Mertz | Stanford University |
The work was conducted by a team led by Brigette Askonas. It was published in AJ McMichael, A Ting, HJ Zweerink, BA Askonas, 'HLA restriction of cell-mediated lysis of influenza virus-infected human cells', Nature, 270/5637 (1977), 524-6; AJ McMichael, BA Askonas, 'Influenza virus-specific cytotoxic T cells in man; induction and properties of the cytotoxic cell', European Journal Immunolology, 8 (1978), 705-11.1977-01-01T00:00:00+0000| 1977 - 1978 | | Cytolytic T cells shown to recognise multiple subtypes of viruses, including influenza virusesMcMichael, Ting, Zweerink, Askonas | National Institute for Medical Research |
The method, known as the oocyte stem, was developed by Janet Mertz together with John Gurdon and Edward M DeRobertis. It was published in EM. De Robertis, JB. Gurdon, GA. Partington, JE Mertz, RA, 'Injected amphibian oocytes: a living test tube for the study of eukaryotic gene transcription?', Biochemistry Society Symposium, 42 (1977),181-91.1977-01-01T00:00:00+0000| 1977 | | First method developed for studying gene regulation in a higher organismMertz, Gurdon, De Robertis | Laboratory of Molecular Biology |
The cloning, achieved by Beverly Griffin with Tomas Lindahl, was announced to a meeting at Cold Spring Harbor1979-01-01T00:00:00+0000| 1979 | | First DNA fragments of Epstein Barr Virus cloned Griffin, Lindahl | Imperial Cancer Research Fund Laboratories, University of Gothenberg |
The identity of the blood stem cell, especially that in the human, and even its existence remains the subject of debate because the cell is difficult to isolate. Those involved in the debate include the Manchester group (Dexter, Lord) and American groups (Weissmann and Morrison). Part of the problem is that techniques for studying the human blood stem cell lagged behind that of animal models. 1980-01-01T00:00:00+0000| 1980 - 1990 | | Existence of the blood stem cell contestedDexter, Lord, Weissmann, Morrison | |
Conducted by a team led by Beverly Griffin, the project's completion was a major achievement. It was one of the largest tracts of eukaryotic DNA sequenced up to this time. The work was published in E Soeda, JR Arrand, N Smolar, JE Walsh, BE Griffin, ‘Coding potential and regulatory signals of the polyoma virus genome’, Nature, 283 (1980) 445-53.1980-01-01T00:00:00+0000| 1980 | | Polyoma virus DNA sequencedGriffin, Soeda, Arrand, Walsh | Imperial Cancer Research Fund Laboratories |
Stern was the first to describe how a healthy cell changes into a cancerous cell. She showed that a normal cell goes through 250 distinct stages before it become cancerous. Stern's work helped transform cervical cancer into an easily diagnosed and treatable condition. She also demonstrated the links between the herpes simplex virus and cervical cancer and between cervical cancer and the oral contraceptive pill. 1980-08-18T00:00:00+0000| 18 Aug 1980 | | Elizabeth Stern diedStern | University of California Los Angeles |
The database was started by Margaret Dayhoff at the NBRF in the mid 1960s and comprised over 200,000 residues. Within a month of its operation more than 100 scientists had requested access to the database. The database was funded with contributions from m Genex, Merck, Eli Lilly, DuPont, Hoffman–La Roche, and Upjohn, and computer time donated by Pfizer Medical Systems.1980-09-15T00:00:00+0000| 15 Sep 1980 | | Largest nucleic acid sequence database in the world made available free over telephone networkDayhoff | National Biomedical Research Foundation, Georgetown University |
The device was developed by the husband and wife team Ingeborg and Erwin Hochmair with the goal of enabling the user not only to hear sounds but also to understand speech. The implant has a long, flexible electrode which allows for the delivery of electric signals to the auditory nerve along a large part of the cochlear. 1980-12-15T00:00:00+0000| December 1980 | | First patient received cochlear implant providing some understanding of speechIngeborg Hochmair, Erwin Hochmair | MED-EL |
Youyou Tu and her team presented their paper 'Studies on the Chemistry of Qinghaosu', which outlined the efficacy of artemisinin and its derivatives in treating several thousand patients infected with malaria in China. The work attracted worldwide attention. 1981-01-01T00:00:00+0000| 1981 | | Anti-malarial properties of artemisinin presented to WHO and World Bank meeting in BeijingTu | China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences |
The work, led by Beverly Griffin, opened up the possibility of sequencing the virus. It was published in J R Arrand, L. Rymo, J E Walsh, E Bjorck, T Lindahl and B E Griffin, ‘Molecular cloning of the complete Epstein-Barr virus genome as a set of overlapping restriction endonuclease fragments’, Nucleic Acids Research, 9/13 (1981), 2999-2014.1981-07-10T00:00:00+0000| 10 Jul 1981 | | Complete library of overlapping DNA fragments of Epstein Barr Virus clonedGriffin, Arrand, Walsh, Bjorck, Rymo | Imperial Cancer Research Fund Laboratories, University of Gothenberg |
The drug was originally synthesised by Howard Schaeffer and then worked on by Gertrude Elion and her team at the Wellcome Research Laboratories. Elion's group worked out the metabolism of the drug and how it coluld attack the herpes virus. Their work opened up further research on enzyme differences in normal and virus-infected cells that paved the way to the development of other antiviral drugs. 1982-03-29T00:00:00+0000| 29 Mar 1982 | | FDA approved acyclovir, the first successful antiviral drug, for treating the herpes virusElion, Howard | Wellcome Research Laboratories |
Dayhoff is known as the founder of bioinformatics. This she did by pioneering the application of mathematics and computational techniques to the sequencing of proteins and nucleic acids and establishing the first publicly available database for research in the area. 1983-02-05T00:00:00+0000| 5 Feb 1983 | | Margaret Dayhoff died in Silver Spring, Maryland, USADayhoff | Silver Spring, Maryland |
Two teams of scientists publish methods for the generation of chimeric monoclonal antibodies, that is antibodies possessing genes that are half-human and half mouse. Each team had developed their techniques separate from each other. The first team was lead by Michael Neuberger together with Terence Rabbitts and other colleagues at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge. The second team consisted of Sherie Morrison and colleagues at Stanford University together with Gabrielle Boulianne and others at the University of Toronto. 1984-12-01T00:00:00+0000| 1984 | | First chimeric monoclonal antibodies developed, laying foundation for safer and more effective monoclonal antibody therapeuticsNeuberger, Rabbitts, Morrison, Oi, Herzenberg, Boulianne, Schulman, Hozumi | Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Stanford Univerity Medical School |
The scientists found the enzyme in the model organism Tetrahymena thermophila, a fresh-water protozoan with a large number of telomeres. CW Greider, EH Blackburn, 'Identification of a specific telomere terminal transferase activity in Tetrahymena extracts', Cell. 43 (2 Pt 1) (1985), 405–13.1984-12-01T00:00:00+0000| December 1984 | | Carol Greider and Elizabeth Blackburn announced the discovery of telomerase, an enzyme that adds extra DNA bases to the ends of chromosomesBlackburn, Greider | University of California Berkeley |
The experiments, carried out in mice by Brigette Askobas and her colleagues, showed that T cells transferred into RSV infected mice showed that the T cells could protect against viral replication, eliminating residual virus from immunosuppressed mice. It also showed that T cells could at the same time cause enhanced lung disease that could be leathal. MJ Cannon, EJ Stott, G Taylor, BA Askonas, 'Clearance of persistent respiratory syncytial virus infections in immunodeficient mice following transfer of primed T cells', Immunology, 62 (1987), 133-38; MJ Cannon, PJ Openshaw, BA Askonas, 'Cytotoxic T cells clear virus but augment lung pathology in mice infected with respiratory syncytial virus', Journal Experimental Medicine, 168/3 (1988), 1163-8.1987-04-30T00:00:00+0000| 1987 - 1988 | | Mice experiments showed T cells to be double-edged sword in clearing persistent infections with respiratory syncytial virusCannon, Stott, Taylor, Askonas, Openshaw | National Institute for Medical Research |
1988-01-01T00:00:00+0000| 1988 | | Beverly Griffin appointed first woman professor at Royal Postgraduate Medical School, Hammersmith HospitalGriffin | Imperial College |
JA Doudna, BP Cormack, JW Szostak, 'RNA Structure, Not Sequence, Determines the 5? Splice-Site Specificity of a Group I Intron', PNAS, 86/19 (1989), 7402-06.1989-10-01T00:00:00+0000| October 1989 | | RNA demonstrated to help catalyse the process for synthesising proteinDoudna, Cormack, Szostak | Harvard University |
The was determined by a team led by Marie-Claire King who conducted a genetic analysis of 23 extended families, a total of 329 relatives. J Hall, M Lee, B Newman, J Morrow, L Anderson, B Huey, M King, 'Linkage of early-onset familial breast cancer to chromosome 17q21', Science, 250/4988 (1990): 1684–89. 1990-12-01T00:00:00+0000| December 1990 | | BRCA1, a single gene on chromosome 17, shown to be responsible for many breast and ovarian cancersKing, Lee, Newman, Morrow, Anderson, Huey | University of California Berkeley |
Seibert was an American biochemist whose isolation of a pure form of tuberculin (a protein substance from the tuberculosis-causing bacillus Mycobacterium tuberculosis) in the 1930s paved the way to her development of the first reliable TB test. Devised at the University of Uppsala, Seibert's test, which is carried out on the skin, was adopted as the standard TB test in the United States in 1941 and by the World Health Organisation in 1952. Her test is still in use today. Prior to her work on TB, Seibert invented a new distillation process for intravenous injections that eliminated all bacteria. She developed the technique during her doctorate after finding that intravenous injections contaminated with distilled water could cause fevers in patients.1991-08-23T00:00:00+0000| 23 Aug 1991 | | Florence B Seibert diedSeibert | Yale University, University of Uppsala, University of Chicago, University of Pennsylvania |
Gwei-djen was a Chinese biochemist who undertook pioneering work on metabolic pathways. In 1933, Gwei-djen took the bold decision to leave China, then isolated from the West, to study for a doctorate at Cambridge University where she remained for the rest of her career. By 1939 she had developed the first sensitive assay for detecting low levels of pyruvic acid, an intermediate involved in the breakdown of carbohydrates. Her work demonstrated that the levels of pyruvic acid could be raised by vitamin B1 deficiency and exercise. Gwei-djen worked closely with both Dorothy and Joseph Needham. Together with Joseph she compiled a series of books detailing Chinese achievements in science and technology. 1991-11-28T00:00:00+0000| 28 Nov 1991 | | Lu Gwei-djen diedGwei-djen | University of Cambridge |
McClintock was a pioneer in the field of cytogenetics, a branch of genetics concerned with how chromosomes affect cell behaviour. Based on her investigation of how chromosomes change in reproduction in maize she demonstrated in the late 1920s that genes can shift to different locations by themselves. In the 1940s and 1950s she showed that genes are responsible for turning physical characteristics on and off, a process called transposition. Initially scientists were sceptical of her findings so she stopped publishing her data in 1953. By the 1960s and 1970s attitudes towards her work changed as more scientists made similar findings. She was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1983 for her work.1992-09-02T00:00:00+0000| 2 Sep 1992 | | Barbara McClintock diedMcClintock | University of Missouri |
Hobby was an American microbiologist whose work was pivotal to scaling up the production of penicillin in World War II and the development of other antibiotics. She first became involved in work on nonpathogenic organisms when doing her doctorate at Columbia University in 1935. From 1934 to 1943 Hobby worked for Presbyterian Hospital and the Columbia Medical School. Thereafter she went to work for Pfizer Pharamceuticals in New York where she conducted research on streptomycin and other antibiotics. She founded the monthly publication 'Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy' in 1972 and published 'Penicillin: Meeting the Challenge' in 1985. 1993-07-04T00:00:00+0000| 4 Jul 1993 | | Gladys Lounsbury Hobby diedHobby | Columbia University, Pfizer |
Dorothy Hodgkin, was a British chemist who pioneered protein crystallography, a technique the uses x-ray crystallography to determine the three dimensional structure of protein crystals. She used the technique to confirm the structure of penicillin, in 1945, for which she won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1964. Hodgkin was the third woman to win the Nobel Prize. In addition to penicillin, Hodgkin published the first structure of a steroid and deciphered the structure of vitamin B12 and insulin. Her protein crystallography technique is now an essential tool for research into structural biology.1994-07-29T00:00:00+0000| 29 Jul 1994 | | Dorothy M Crowfoot Hodgkin diedD Hodgkin | Oxford University |
The belief that adult stem cells, especially the blood stem cell, can give rise to cells such as brain, liver and cardiac gives rise to notion that adult stem cells could be used like embryonic counterparts for regenerative therapies, helping in degenerative diseases of the brain and heart. This marks a paradigm shift as it goes against dogma from decades of research and clinical success with the blood stem cell. 1996-01-01T00:00:00+0000| 1996 | | First reports that blood stem cell might be able to give rise to cells other than those of the blood systemBlau, Lagasse, Lemischka, Morrison, Thiese, Krause, Gussoni, Bjornson | |
The work was led by Padmanee Sharma. The team's finding appeared in P. Sharma et al, ‘Thymus-leukaemia antigen interacts with T cells and self-peptides’, Journal Immunology, 156 (1996), 987-96.1996-02-01T00:00:00+0000| 1 Feb 1996 | | Paper published indicating thymus-leukaemia antigen, a cell-surface marker, stimulates T cells to destroy specific target cellsSharma | Pennsylvania State University |
Koshland was an American immunologist who was a major pioneer in the field of antibodies. Her work was instrumental in showing antibodies to be discrete entities and knowledge about the origins of antibody specificity. In the 1960s, she demonstrated that the efficiency and effectiveness with which antibodies can combat foreign invaders is determined by their different amino acid compositions. By the 1990s she had unravelled the process that accompanies and directs B cell activation and maturation. A major role-model for other women scientists, Koshland was nearly not awarded her PhD because her professor thought it would be a waste because she was pregnant. 1997-10-28T00:00:00+0000| 28 Oct 1997 | | Marian E Koshland diedKoshland | Brookhaven National Laboratory |
Elion was an American biochemist and pharmacologist renowned for developing new methods to design drugs that made took advantage of the biochemical differences between normal human cells and pathogens (disease-causing agents). The aim was to create a drug capable of killing or inhibiting the reproduction of pathogens without harming healthy cells. Elion helped develop a number of drugs for a variety of diseases, including leukaemia and malaria. One of her most notable achievements was the creation of the first immunosuppressive drug for organ transplant patients. In 1988 she was joined awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 'discoveries of important principles for drug treatment.'1999-02-21T00:00:00+0000| 21 Feb 1999 | | Gertrude B Elion diedElion | Wellcome Research Laboratories |
N Krauzewicz, K Stokrova, C Jenkins, M Elliott, CF Higgns, BE Griffin, ‘Virus-like gene transfer to cell nuclei mediated by polyoma virus pseudocapsids’, Gene Therapy, 7 (2000), 2122-31.2000-01-02T00:00:00+0000| 2 Jan 2000 | | Polyoma virus shown to be potential tool for delivering gene therapyKrauzewicz, Stokrova, Jenkins, Elliott, Higgns, Griffin | Imperial College, Czech Academy of Sciences, University of Wales |
The work was led by Ada Yonath using x-ray crystallography. This was a major achievement given the hundreds of thousands of atoms that ribosomes contain. Ribosomes help build proteins in the body. The work has led to many applications, including for the production of antibiotics. F Schlunzen, R Zarivach, J Harms, A Bashan, A Ticilj, R Albrecht, A Yonath, F Franceschi, 'Structural basis for the interaction of antibiotics with the peptidyl transferase centre in eubacteria', Nature, 413 (2001), 814-21. 2001-10-25T00:00:00+0000| 25 Oct 2001 | | Structure and function of ribosomes deciphered opening up new era for improving antibiotic drugs and designing new onesYonath, Schlunzen, Zarivach, Harms, Basham, Ticilj, Albrecht, Francheschi | Weizmann Institute |
J Harms, F Schluenzen, R Zarivach et al, 'High resolution structure of the large ribosomal subunit from a mesophilic eubacterium,' Cell, 107 (2001), 679-88; PMID:11733066.2001-11-30T00:00:00+0000| 30 Nov 2001 | | Ada Yonath and colleagues published the complete high-resolution of structures of both ribosomal subunits and discovered a region important to the process of polypeptide polymerisationYonath | Weizmann Institute |
Vogt was a German pharmacologist who left Nazi Germany for Britain where she became one of the leading neuroscientists of the twentieth century. Her most important contribution was advancing knowledge about the role of neurotransmitters in the brain. She demonstrated that the hormones epinephrine and norepinephrine enable brain cells to communicate. In 1954 she published a paper on sympathin which helped to establish the important role of amines in the brain and paved the way to the development of modern anti-depressant therapy. 2003-09-09T00:00:00+0000| 9 Sep 2003 | | Marthe L Vogt diedVogt | National Institute for Medical Research |
Daly trained as a biochemist and was the first Black American woman to earn a doctorate in chemistry (from Columbia University, 1947). Her early research looked at the effects of cholesterol on the mechanisms of the heart, the effects sugars and other nutrients on the health of the arteries and the impact of advanced aged and hypertension on the circulatory system. This she did at Rockefeller Institute in New York. She subsequently joined Columbia University where she investigated how proteins are produced and organised in the cell. In addition to her scientific work, Daly was an ardent campaigner for getting minority students into medical school and graduate science programmes.2003-10-28T00:00:00+0000| 28 Oct 2003 | | Marie M Daly diedMary Daly | Rockefeller Institute, Columbia University |
Padmanee Sharma et al, ‘Frequency of NY-ESO-1 and LAGE-1 expression in bladder cancer and evidence of a new NY-ESO-1 T-cell epitope in a patient with bladder cancer’, Cancer Immunology, 3 (Dec 13 2003), 19.2003-12-13T00:00:00+0000| 13 Dec 2003 | | Sharma discovered some bladder cancer cells expressed the marker NY-ESO-1 providing means for cancer vaccineSharma | Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center |
The finding was made by the husband and wife team May-Britt Moser and Edvard I Moser together with John O'Keefe after conducting experiments with rats. They found that when a rat developed nerve cells that form a co-ordinate system for navigation when they passed certain points on a hexagonal grid. The teams work laid the foundation for new understandings about the cognitive processes and spacial deficits associated with neurological disorders like Alzheimer's disease. 2005-01-01T00:00:00+0000| 1 Jan 2005 | | Discovery of nerve cell that allows the brain to determine spatial position May-Britt Moser, Edvard Moser, O'Keefe | Norwegian University of Science and Technology |
A team at Harvard Stem Cell Institute reported fusing adult skin cells with embryonic stem cells to reset the culture so that the cells behave like embryonic stem cells. The researchers did the work using pelvic bone cells as the somatic cells and a different human embryonic cell line. Chad A Cowan, Jocelyn Alenza, Douglas A Melton, Kevin Eggan, 'Nuclear reprogramming of somatic cells after fusion with human embryonic stem cells', Science, 309/5739 (2005), 1369-73. 2005-08-25T00:00:00+0000| 25 Aug 2005 | | Harvard scientists reported reprogramming adult skin cells into embryonic stem cells Cowan, Eggan, Melton, Alienza | Harvard Stem Cell Institute |
This was first observed by Padmanee Sharma. Her findings provided an important pathway for improving the clinical efficacy of anti-CTLA-4 therapy. They were first published Chrysoula I Liakou, Ashish Kamat, Derek Ng Tang, Hong Chen, Jingjing Sun, Patricia Troncoso, Christopher Logothetis, and Padmanee Sharma, ‘CTLA-4 blockade increases IFNgamma-producing CD4+ICOShi T cells to shift the ratio of effector to regulatory T cells in cancer patients’, PNAS USA, 105/39 (Sept 2008), 14987-92.2006-01-01T00:00:00+0000| 2006 | | Inducible co-stimulator (ICOS) protein found to enhance anti-CTLA-4 treatment in destruction of cancer cellsSharma, Liakou, Kamat, Ng Tang, Chen, Sun, Troncoso, Logothetis | MD Anderson Cancer Center |
Lederberg is best known for having discovered the lambda phage, an indispensable tool for studying gene regulation and genetic recombination. She also invented the replica plating technique which is pivotal to tracking antibiotic resistance. 2006-11-11T00:00:00+0000| 11 Nov 2006 | | Esther Lederberg diedEsther Lederberg | Wisconsin University |
Chatterjee was an Indian organic chemist who was the first woman to receive a doctorate in science from an Indian university - Calcutta University. Most of her work concentrated on researching various alkaloid compounds. She is best known for her discovery of the anti-epileptic activity of Marsilea minuta, an aquatic fern, which led to the development of the an epilepsy drug called Ayush-56. Chatterjee also found the anti-malarial properties of the plants Alstonia scholaris, Swertia chirata, Picrorhiza kurroa and Caesalpinia crista which led to antimalarial drugs.2006-11-22T00:00:00+0000| 22 Nov 2006 | | Asima Chatterjee diedChatterjee | University of Calcutta |
McLaren was a major pioneer in the development of IVF. She was also the key architect behind the Human Embryology and Fertilisation Act (1990) which provided the world’s first legal guidelines for infertility treatment and all human embryo research. Following this Act, McLaren served for 10 years on the Human Fertility and Embryology Authority, established in 1991, and became a critical player in debates about the governance of embryonic stem cells for therapy. She also made history in 1991 by becoming the Royal Society’s first woman officer. 2007-07-07T00:00:00+0000| 7 Jul 2007 | | Anne McLaren died McLaren | University College London, Edinburgh University, Cambridge University |
Saruhashi is renowned for being the first scientist to demonstrate the dangers of radioactive fallout in seawater that resulted from nuclear bomb testing in 1954. Her evidence was later used to prevent further nuclear testing by governments. Despite her achievement, she suffered discrimination as a woman scientist. She was the first woman to earn a doctorate in chemistry from the University of Tokyo in 1957. Convinced that technical expertise was the key to women's independence she established the Society of Japanese Scientists in 1958 to promote women in science.2007-09-29T00:00:00+0000| 29 Sep 2007 | | Katsuko Saruhashi diedSaruhashi | |
June Almeida was a major pioneer of electron microscopy which helped transform knowledge about virology. She is best known for taking the first electron micrograph of the rubella virus and a human coronavirus. Her work also helped uncover the structure of the hepatitis B virus which paved the way to developing a vaccine against hepatitis B. She also published some of the first high quality images of HIV. 2007-12-01T00:00:00+0000| 1 Dec 2007 | | June Almeida diedAlmeida | Hammersmith Postgraduate Medical School |
Datta was a British microbial geneticist who showed that multi-antibiotic resistance was transferred between bacteria by plasmids. She first made the connection in 1959 after investigating a severe outbreak of Salmonella typhimurium phage-type 27 at Hammersmith Hospital where she worked. This involved an examination of 309 cultures, of which she found 25 were drug resistant, eight of which were resistant to Streptomycin which had been used to treat the patients. She concluded that the antibiotic resistance developed over time because the earlier cultures of the salmonella typhimurium infection (from the start of the outbreak) were not drug resistant.
2008-11-30T00:00:00+0000| 30 Nov 2008 | | Naomi Datta diedDatta | Hammersmith Hospital |
The idea of using gene therapy to treat vision loss in patients with multiple sclerosis emerged out of an investigation of the molecular change in synapses in the visual system by Dorothy Schafer and her colleagues. They found that in the case of demyelinating disease like MS, there was an abundance of the protein CD3 in the synapses, which is responsible for sending signals microglia to eliminate otherwise healthy-seeming synapses. The aim of gene therapy would be to deliver an inhibitor of C3 to synapses in the visual system to help protect the cells or tissue from unwanted attack by the immune system. S.Werneberg et al, 'Targeted complement inhibition at synapses prevents microglial synaptic engulfment and synapse loss in demyelinating disease', Immunity, 52/1 (2020), 167-82, e7.2010-01-14T00:00:00+0000| 14 Jan 2010 | | Research published suggesting gene therapy could help preserve neural circuits and protect against vision loss in patients with multiple sclerosisDorothy Schafer, Werneburg, Jung, Kunjama | University of Massachusetts Medical School, University of Chicago, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, University of Connecticut School of Medicine |
Yalow was an American medical physicist who made her name by helping to develop the radioimmunoassay (RIA) technique. RIA uses two reagents. One is a radioisotope atom bound to a molecule of the target substance and the other is an antibody that will bind to the target substance when the two are in contact. Measurements are taken of the initial radioactivity of the mixture which is then added to a measured quantity of fluid, such as blood, that contains low concentrations of an unknown target substance. The test takes advantage of the fact that antibodies prefer to attach to non-radioactive molecules. Measurements are taken of the reduction in radioactivity of the antibody reagent to calculate the concentration of the target substance. The RIA method is now an important component in diagnostic tests, being used to measure the concentration of hormones, vitamins, viruses, enzymes, drugs and other substances. The technique transformed the diagnosis and treatment of diabetes and other hormonal problems related to growth, thyroid function and fertility. It is used to test for phenylketonuria in newborn babies, a rare inherited disorder that if left untreated can lead to intellectual disability, seizures, behavioural problems and mental disorder. In 1977 Yalow became the second woman in history to win the Nobel Prize for the physiology or medicine category. It was awarded on the basis of her RIA work. 2011-05-30T00:00:00+0000| 30 May 2011 | | Rosalyn Yalow diedYalow | Veterans Administration Hospital |
The patent was submitted by Jennifer Doudna, at the University of California Berkeley, and Emmanuell Charpentier, at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research in Germany. The application was for a patent to cover the use of CRISPR-Cas9 for genome editing in vitro.2012-05-25T00:00:00+0000| May 2012 | | First patent application submitted for CRISPR-Cas 9 technologyDoudna, Charpentier | University of California Berkeley, University of Vienna |
M Jinek, K Chylinski, I Fonfara, M Hauer, J A Doudna, E Charpentier, 'A programmable dual-RNA-guided DNA endonuclease in adaptive bacterial immunity', Science, 337/6096 (2012): 816-21.2012-08-17T00:00:00+0000| 17 Aug 2012 | | Publication of radically new gene editing method that harnesses the CRISPR-Cas9 system Jinek, Chylinski, Fonfara, Hauer, Doudna, Charpentier | University of California Berkeley |
Levi-Montalcini is best known for sharing the Nobel Prize in 1986 for helping to discover and isolate the nerve growth factor which helps regulate the growth, maintenance, proliferation and survival of certain neurons. Banned by Mussolini from working in academia because she was Jewish, Levi-Montalcini conducted much of her early work in a makeshift laboratory in her bedroom. She later became the director of the Research Center of Neurobiology and the Laboratory of Cellular Biology in Washington University and founded the European Brain Research Institute.
2012-12-30T00:00:00+0000| 30 Dec 2012 | | Rita Levi-Montalcini diedLevi-Montalcini | Institute of Cell Biology of the CNR |
Askonas was a leading figure in immunology whose work helped to establish the basic mechanisms and components of immune system. Together with colleagues she developed one of the first systems for the cloning of antibody-forming B cells in vivo, some of the earliest monoclonal antibodies. She was also one of the first scientists to isolate and clone virus specific T lymphocytes, laying the foundation for defining different influenza sub-sets and improving vaccines. 2013-01-09T00:00:00+0000| 9 Jan 2013 | | Brigitte Askonas diedAskonas | National Institute for Medical Research |
Team of scientists led by Kathy Niakan based at Francis Crick Institute in London sought permission from UK Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority to use gene editing techniques like CRISPR-Cas on embryos less than 2 weeks old. Research designed to understand why some women lose their babies before term. 2015-09-18T00:00:00+0000| 18 Sep 2015 | | UK scientists sought license to genetically modify human embryos to study the role played by genes in the first few days of human fertilisationNaikan | Crick Institute |
2015-10-05T00:00:00+0000| 5 Oct 2015 | | Tu Youyou awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of artemisinin, a treatment for malariaTu | China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences |
Griffin was a leading expert on viruses that cause cancer. She was the first woman appointed to Royal Postgraduate Medical School, Hammersmith Hospital. In 1980 she completed the sequence of the poliovirus, the longest piece of eukaryotic DNA to be sequenced at that time. She devoted her life to understanding the Epstein-Barr virus, the cause of Burkitt's Lymphoma, a deadly form of cancer.
2016-06-13T00:00:00+0000| 13 Jun 2016 | | Beverly Griffin diedGriffin | Imperial College |
The work was undertaken by a group of researchers at the University of Edinburgh led by Evelyn Telfer. It involved taking tiny pieces of ovarian tissue from 10 women undergoing elective caesarean surgery extracting priorial follicles, small structures that have the potential to release an egg, which were then placed in a nutrient-rich liquid to grow. The team then carefully removed the fragile, immature eggs and some surrounding cells from the follicles and placed them on a special membrane with the addition of growth-supporting proteins so that they could grow to become the size you would see of an egg during ovulation. Most of the eggs failed to grow, but 10% completed their journey to maturity - that is they were able to divide and halve their chromosomes so they were ready to be fertilised by sperm. The work was published in M McLaughlin, DF Albertini, WHB Wallace, RA Anderson, EE Telfer, Molecular Human Reproduction, 24/3 (March 2018) 135-42. DOI: 10.1093/molehr/gay002. 2018-01-30T00:00:00+0000| 30 Jan 2018 | | First human eggs grown in laboratoryTelfer, McLaughlin, Albertini, Wallace, Anderson | University of Edinburg |
Doudna and Charpentier's development of the CRISPR/Cas9 method together with other colleagues has radically transformed the process for gene editing. Enabling genetic engineering to be carried out on an unprecedented scale at very low cost, CRISPR/Cas9 is now exploited for a wide range of applications ranging from agriculture through to human health. 2020-10-07T00:00:00+0000| 7 Oct 2020 | | Nobel Prize in Chemistry awarded to Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna 'for the development of a method for genome editing'.Doudna, Charpentier | University California Berkeley, University of Umea |
|
Respond to or comment on this page on our feeds on Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon or Twitter.