Judith Graham Pool
Judith Graham Pool | |
---|---|
Born |
June 1, 1919 Queens, New York, USA |
Died |
July 13, 1975 Stanford, California, USA |
Citizenship | United States |
Fields | Medicine |
Institutions | Stanford University |
Alma mater | University of Chicago |
Known for | Discovery of cryoprecipitate |
Judith Graham Pool (June 1, 1919 - July 13, 1975) was an American scientist. She is best known for the discovery of cryoprecipitation, a process for creating concentrated blood clotting factors which significantly improved the quality of life for hemophiliacs around the world.
Background
Judith was born in Queens, N.Y. into a Jewish family. Her mother was a school teacher and her father was a stockbroker. She married Ithiel da Sola Pool, a political scientist, in her junior year in College. She stopped her graduate program when she gave birth to her two sons, Jonathan Robert and Jeremy David Pool,[1] in the 1940s. Her got a divorce in the 1950s and moved to Oslo, Norway in 1958 - 1959. She had a daughter twenty years after the birth of her second son, then she married Maurice Sokolow, professor of medicine and hematology. Their marriage ended three years after.[2] Judith Pool died when she was 56 from a brian tumor.[3]
Education
Judith studied physics at the University of Chicago, then she went on to graduate work and served as an assistant in her department. She taught physics at Hobart College in Geneva, N.Y., while writing her dissertation on the electrophysiology of muscle fibers. She finally completed her degree in 1946, produced a remarkable study of the electropotential of a single isolated muscle fiber. After her doctoral degree, She moved to California with her family and obtained a research position at the Stanford Research Institute. In 1953, she began to do blood coagulation studies at the Stanford School of Medicine as a research fellow supported by a Bank America-Giannini Foundation grant. She went to Oslo, Norway, on a Fulbright research fellowship.[2]
Career
She was a Stanford senior research associate from 1956 to 1970, then advanced to senior scientist in 1970. In 1972, she was promoted to full professor with a high professorial ranks. She also gave lectures, such as the Paul M. Aggeler Memorial Lecture in 1974, at several institutions and congresses. She was a member of the national scientific advisory committees of the National Institutes of Health and the American Red Cross Blood Program,[3] the Advisory Committee of the National Blood Resource Program, the Medical and Scientific Advisory COmmittee of the National Hemophilia Foundation, the Medical and Scientific Advisory Committee of the World Federation of Hemophilia, and the editorial boards of Transfusion and the American Journal of Hematology.[1]
In her last year, Judith spent most of her time and effort on making more and better opportunities for women in science nationally.[3] She was also the founder and chairwoman of the Professional Women of Stanford University Medical School, a co-president of the Board of Trustees of the Association of Women in Science Educational Foundation from 1971 to 1972, and a founder and member of the Steering committee of the Association of Women in Science from 1972 to 1973. She devoted herself to this just as keenly as she did the scientific questions with which she liked to wrestle, and she exerted herself publicly on behalf of women's roles in science with the same quiet, tough effectiveness which characterized her scientific work.[1]
Contribution
Judith's work on blood coagulation resulted in the development of a cold-insoluble protein fraction of blood plasma, cryoprecipitate, which contains an antihemolytic factor (AHF) soon to be used widely in blood banks. She obtained awards for this discovery.[2] Pool's major observation, that factor VIII can be simply and cheaply prepared from human plasma, and can be easily and safely given to hemophilic patients. The material can be used to terminate bleeding in the hemophilic, or to preoperatively prepare the hemophilic, so that necessary surgical procedures are now possible in this group of patients. In addition to devising and introducing into clinical medicine a preparation containing the lacking protein in the hemophilicshe also made a number of contributions on the extraction, preservation, and survival of protein. She was highly regarded internationally in hematological circles.[1]
Selected Work
- Measurements of membrane potential in a single muscle fiber (with Dr. Ralph W. Gerard), 1942[1]
- The coagulation of the blood, contribution on assays of coagulation factors [1]
- The coagulation of the blood, in vitro synthesis of cagulation factors[1]
- The coagulation of the blood, antibody inhibitors of factor VIII, 1954 [1]
- The Fifth Annual Paul M. Aggeler Memorial Lecture, 1974 [1]
Honors
- The Murray Thelin Award of the National Hemophilia Foundation, 1968[3]
- The Elizabeth Blackwell Award from Hobart and William Smith Colleges, 1973 [3]
- The Paul M. Aggeler Memorial Lectureship, 1974 [1]
- The Professional Achievement Award from University of Chicago, 1975[2]
- The National Hemophilia Foundation renamed its Research Fellowship Awards the Judith Graham Pool Research Fellowships [2][3]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 Creger, William P.; Roy Maffly (14 Nov 2003). MEMORIAL RESOLUTION - JUDITH GRAHAM POOL. Retrieved 2013-11-15.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Ogilvie, Marilyn (2000). The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: L-Z. Routledge. p. 1039.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 Sicherman, Barbara (1980). Notable American Women: The Modern Period : a Biographical Dictionary, Volume 4. Harvard University Press. p. 553.