Louise Pearce
American pathologist (1885ā1959) / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Louise Pearce (March 5, 1885 ā August 10, 1959) was an American pathologist at the Rockefeller Institute who helped develop a treatment for African sleeping sickness (trypanosomiasis).[1][3] Sleeping sickness was a fatal epidemic which had devastated areas of Africa, killing two-thirds of the population of the Uganda protectorate between 1900 and 1906 alone.[4] With chemists Walter Abraham Jacobs and Michael Heidelberger and pathologist Wade Hampton Brown, Pearce worked to develop and test arsenic-based drugs for its treatment. In 1920, Louise Pearce traveled to the Belgian Congo where she designed and carried out a drug testing protocol for human trials to establish tryparsamide's safety, effectiveness, and optimum dosage.[5] Tryparsamide proved successful in combating the fatal epidemic, curing 80% of cases.[6]
Louise Pearce | |
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Born | (1885-03-05)March 5, 1885 |
Died | August 10, 1959(1959-08-10) (aged 74)[1] |
Nationality (legal) | American |
Alma mater | Stanford University, Boston University, Johns Hopkins University |
Awards | Order of the Crown of Belgium, Officer of the Royal Order of the Lion[2] |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Pathology |
Institutions | Rockefeller Institute |
External videos | |
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Unsung Hero: Louise Pearce. Image of blood smear from a patient with African trypanosomiasis, showing trypanosomes. |
For her work on sleeping sickness, Pearce received the Order of the Crown of Belgium (1920[2] or 1921[6]). In 1953, Belgium further honored her, appointing Pearce and her co-workers as Officers of the Royal Order of the Lion.[2]
Pearce also successfully developed treatment protocols to apply tryparsamide to syphilis. She spent much of her career studying animal models of cancer.