RIP, sickle-cell scientist
Helen M. Ranney, the first woman to head a department of medicine at a U.S. medical school, died last month at age 89. Ranney was a pioneer in the field of genetics, studying the inheritance of sickle cell disease in the early 1950s, when scientists knew little about DNA. To identify carriers of the sickle cell gene, she adapted gel electrophoresis to quickly and easily separate cells with normal hemoglobin from distorted, sickle-shaped cells, since adult carriers contained roughly equal amounts of normal and diseased hemoglobin. She also adapted this approach to other blood disorders.
According to the linkurl:__Los Angeles Times__,;http://www.latimes.com/news/custom/scimedemail/la-me-helen-ranney-20100501,0,6020210.story Ranney was originally rejected from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons because she was a woman, but reapplied during World War II when many men were at war, and was accepted. She was also the first female president...
Helen M. Ranney, the first woman to head a department of medicine at a U.S. medical school, died last month at age 89. Ranney was a pioneer in the field of genetics, studying the inheritance of sickle cell disease in the early 1950s, when scientists knew little about DNA. To identify carriers of the sickle cell gene, she adapted gel electrophoresis to quickly and easily separate cells with normal hemoglobin from distorted, sickle-shaped cells, since adult carriers contained roughly equal amounts of normal and diseased hemoglobin. She also adapted this approach to other blood disorders.
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Image: National Library of Medicine |
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