Meet Dr. Theodor Scwann!
Dr. Theodor Schwann, a German physiologist, was born in Neuss in Rhenish, Prussia December 1810. He began his studies at the Jesuits College in...
Meet Rebecca Lancefield!
Dr. Rebecca Craighill Lancefield was born in 1895 at Fort Wadsworth, New York. Dr. Lancefield received a bachelor's degree in 1916 from Wellesley College, after
Bioss Antibodies
Dec 1, 2015
Dr. Rebecca Craighill Lancefield was born in 1895 at Fort Wadsworth, New York. Dr. Lancefield received a bachelor's degree in 1916 from Wellesley College, after changing her major from English to zoology. Two years later, she earned a master's degree from Columbia University, where she pursued bacteriology in the laboratory of Hans Zinsser.
During World War I, Rebecca worked with bacteriologist Oswarl Avery and Alphonse Dochez to discover whether distinct types of Streptococci could be isolated so that a serum might be produced to prevent infection. Within a year, they went on to publish a major report which described four types of Streptococcus.
Following this, Lancefield worked simultaneously on a Ph.D. at Columbia and on rheumatic fever studies at the Rockefeller Institute in the laboratory of Homer Swift.Lancefield's first project with Swift, which was also her doctoral work, showed that the alpha-hemolytic class of Streptococcus was not the cause of rheumatic fever. Lancefield decided that a more basic approach to rheumatic fever was needed. She began sorting out types among the disease-causing class, the beta-hemolytic streptococci. Her major tool for classifying the bacteria was the precipitin test. Lancefield soon recovered two surface antigens from these streptococci. One was a polysaccharide called the C substance. Within group A streptococci, Lancefield found another antigen and determined it was a protein, called M for its matt appearance in colony formations.
In 1961, she was the first woman elected president of the American Association of Immunologists, and in 1970, she was one of few women elected to the National Academy of Sciences. Other honors included the T. Duckett Jones Memorial Award in 1960, the American Heart Association Achievement Award in 1964, the New York Academy of Medicine Medal in 1973, and honorary degrees from Rockefeller University in 1973 and Wellesley College in 1976.
O’HERN, ELIZABETH M. "Rebecca Craighill Lancefield, Pioneer Microbiologist." ASM News/American Society for Microbiology 41 (1975): 805-810.
"Lancefield, Rebecca Craighill (1895-1981)." World of Microbiology and Immunology. 2003.Encyclopedia.com. 1 Dec. 2015 http://www.encyclopedia.com.