Ele Willoughby, PhDMar 20

Happy birthday to šŸ‡ØšŸ‡¦Canadian medical researcher & #biochemist Maud Menten (1879-1960). Not only was she an author of Michaelis-Menten equation for #enzyme kinetics, she invented the azo-dye coupling for alkaline phosphatase, 1st example of enzyme #histochemistry, still used in imaging of tissues today & she also performed the first #electrophoretic separation of blood haemoglobin in 1944!ā 
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#linocut #printmaking #womenInSTEM #histsci #mastoArt

Show threadEle Willoughby, PhDMar 20
Earned BSc in 1904, then M.B., bachelorā€™s of medicine in 1907 at U of Toronto. She published 1st paper on distribution of chloride ions in nerve cells in 1906. At Rockefeller Inst in NY, she co-authored book on radium bromide & cancer. She completed 1st of 2 fellowships at Western Reserve U (now Case Western), then earned medical research doctorate in 1911 at U of T. With Leonor Michaelis in Berlin looked at enzyme-catalyzed reactions, found they occurred at a šŸ§µ2/
Show threadEle Willoughby, PhDMar 20
rate proportional to the amount of the enzyme-substrate complex, & developed their famous eq for rate as a function of substrate. Was critical to understanding how enzymes work &helped scientists develop means of blocking enzyme reactions. ā 
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She studied cancer from 1913 to 1914 in lab of surgeon Crile at Western Reserve U in Cleveland. 2nd doctorate in biochem at U of Chicago in 1916. In 1923 she joined faculty of the U of Pittsburgh as a demonstrator in pathology & a šŸ§µ3/
Show threadEle Willoughby, PhD
clinical pathologist at Childrenā€™s Hospital in Pittsburgh. 3 positions: surgical pathologist, post-mortem pathologist, & haematologist & she authored > 100 papers. Discovered utility of immunization of animals against infectious diseases. In 1944 was 1st to use electric fields to separate different proteins in a mixture based on size - a method called electrophoresis - to separate blood #haemoglobin (commonly misattributed to Pauling). šŸ§µ4/5
Mar 20 at 11:14amWeb
Show threadEle Willoughby, PhDMar 20
She characterised bacterial toxins from B. paratyphosus, Streptococcus scarlatina & Salmonella ssp. then successfully used in an #immunisation program against scarlet fever in Pittsburgh during the 30ā€™s & 40ā€™s. Promoted to assistant prof 1923 & assoc prof 1925, full prof in 1949 at 70, 1 year prior to retirement. Joined the BC Medical Research Institute & worked 3 more years. šŸ§µ5/5