WIKIMEDIA, U.S. CONGRESSLouise Slaughter (D-NY), a longtime member of the US House of Representatives who trained as a microbiologist, died last week (March 16) at age 88. Among Slaughter’s accomplishments as a lawmaker, she composed the Genetic Information and Nondiscrimination Act (GINA), which provides protections for people with genetic mutations, and advocated against the overuse of antibiotics.
“She had just a wonderful understanding of the scientific process, of what science can create in terms of improving the health of the world,” Mark Taubman, CEO of the University of Rochester Medical Center, tells the Democrat & Chronicle. “And as such she was a great supporter of the NIH (National Institutes of Health), and a great supporter of increasing funding for science.”
Slaughter was born in Kentucky in 1929, and earned a bachelor’s degree in microbiology and a master’s in public health from the University of Kentucky. According to her website, she wrote her graduate thesis on antibiotic resistance.
In the 1970s and ‘80s, Slaughter served in various state government positions in New York before being elected to the US House in 1986. “Early ...
