Think of female scientists that you’ve read about in your textbooks… are the names limited to Marie Curie and Rosalind Franklin? This was the case for me and a lot of my friends. We are all familiar with Charles Darwin, Gregor Mendel, [James] Watson and [Francis] Crick and even Robert Brown. These men are mentioned time and again in my IGCSE and IB textbooks for their contributions to biology. The same textbooks discuss the discoveries and theories of many female scientists, but they go unnamed and unrecognized. In this article, I intend on discussing the women behind a lot of well known and pertinent discoveries along with other inspirational women who were trailblazers in the field of biology.
Isabel Morgan: In my IGCSE biology classes I studied how vaccines function. We learned that Vaccines introduce a dead or altered form of the disease-causing pathogens or viruses to be introduced into the body, which contains specific antigens. In response to this white blood cells produce complementary antibodies, which target and attach to the antigen. This was used to produce a polio vaccine, since then the number of wild poliovirus cases has decreased by over 99% since 1988 and we have to thank Isabel Morgan for this. Back in 1949, no one believed in the effectiveness of a killed virus to stimulate antibody production. Morgan, however, crafted dead viruses in the neural tissue of monkeys and then injected that into another animal. She then injected live polio into that animal and checked if the animal got polio. The animal didn’t contract polio and Isabel Morgan proved the principle behind vaccines.
(Isabel then left her practice at John Hopkins to get married and no one picked up her work for 6 years.)
Francoise Barré-Sinoussi: The IGCSE also focuses on the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and discusses methods of transmission and ways to prevent transmission. One detail that goes unmentioned is that it was Francoise Barré-Sinoussi who discovered this retrovirus (a virus whose primary genetic source is RNA). Before her discovery of HIV, it was believed that the Human T Lymphotropic Virus (HTLV) was the cause of AIDS. She studied both viruses and discovered the difference between HIV and HTLV. Her discovery of HIV drastically improved treatment for people with AIDS. It allowed for blood tests to be done to detect the virus and also led to antiretroviral medications being made eventually. She was also an advocate for public education about AIDS and travelled through Asia and Africa spreading this message. She won a Nobel prize in 2008 for her discovery.
Gertrude Elion: She is known for rejecting the trial and error approach when it came to drug development and adopted a more rational scientific approach. At age 32 she discovered a purine (one of the base types present in DNA and RNA) compound (6-mercaptopurine) This interfered with the formation of leukaemia cells and thus slowed down the rate of their growth. A close relative of 6-mercaptopurine was used as an immunosuppressant which eventually allowed organ transplants to occur. Furthermore, she also invented antiviral drugs to fight herpes, chickenpox, shingles, and Epstein-Barr. It also paved the way for AZT, a drug used to treat aids. Her contributions to medicine are truly instrumental.
Tu Youyou: In around 1950, USA tried to eradicate malaria by spaying 4.5 million homes with DDT (an insecticide) however migrations due to war along with different levels of application caused this method to fail and create a strain of mosquitos which were resistant to the only drugs which could combat malaria. In China malaria affected millions a year so by 1960 a new campaign to eradicate malaria began. During this time people were desperate to find a cure for malaria and Tu Youyou helped find one. She developed a program to test two thousand possible cures systematically. She also discovered a method to extract the artemisinin from wormwood. The artemisinin was then made into a compound that is effective for the treatment of malaria. She won the Nobel prize for medicine in 2015. She was the first-ever Chinese woman to win a Nobel prize.
To read more about women in medicine check out the following link…
We hope this article was informative and helped you learn something new. Leave a comment discussing some other female scientists or a comment suggesting other articles you would like to read
Bibliography
“The Nobel Prize | Women Who Changed Science | Gertrude Elion.” Www.Nobelprize.Org, www.nobelprize.org/womenwhochangedscience/stories/gertrude-elion.
“The Nobel Prize | Women Who Changed Science | Tu Youyou.” Nobelprize.Org, 2019, www.nobelprize.org/womenwhochangedscience/stories/tu-youyou.
“The Nobel Prize | Women Who Changed Science | Françoise Barré-Sinoussi.” Www.Nobelprize.Org, www.nobelprize.org/womenwhochangedscience/stories/francoise-barre-sinoussi.
“Forging the Trail for Polio Vaccination: Isabel Morgan and Dorothy Horstmann.” ASM.Org, www.asm.org/Articles/2019/August/Forging-the-Trail-for-a-Polio-Vaccine-Isabel-Morga. Accessed 9 June 2020.
Srivastava, Anushika. “Women Scientists Whose Unsung Work Made The Polio Vaccine Possible.” SheThePeople TV, 30 Apr. 2020, www.shethepeople.tv/blog-kn/isabel-morgan-dorothy-horstmann-polio-vaccine/. Accessed 9 June 2020.
By Bhakti Almoula
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