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looking for info on Dr. Mary Pangborn [forward] 

Forwarded to STHC-L by request.  --RJ


--- Begin Forwarded Message ---
Date: Tue, 16 Apr 2002 20:12:09 -0700
From: Lauren Kata  [ah0958@wayne.edu]
Subject: looking for info on Dr. Mary Pangborn


Dear STHC-Roundtable members,

I am looking for archival material and/or oral histories on Dr. Mary 
Pangborn, woman inventor of cardiolipin.  Attached is her bio from 
the Inventor's Hall of Fame.  Any leads or advice on how to get more 
information about her (or how to contact her, but that is a longshot) 
would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks very much for your time,
Lauren Kata

PANGBORN. Mary C.
If penicillin was the world's savior from syphilis, cardiolipin was its 
midwife. Without this compound's discovery by Dr. Mary C. Pangborn, a 
standardized syphilis test would have been beyond reach, and accurate 
diagnosis and post-treatment assessment impossible. Even today the 
laboratory test that emerged from this discovery remains in use and, 
despite improved and simpler tests, is still the only reliable measure 
of the dynamics of the infection and the effects of antibiotic 
treatment. Syphilis was a major public health threat for centuries in 
the United States and elsewhere when, in 1905, the organism that caused 
the disease was identified. A year later, a German bacteriologist named 
August von Wasserman developed the first test to diagnose this sexually 
transmitted disease that causes serious neurological
and cardiovascular disorders. The blood test had its shortcomings, 
however. Chief among them was the inconsistency of its centerpiece, an 
antigen. To detect anti-lipid antibodies that follow from an infection 
with Treponema pallidum, an antigen was required. An alcoholic extract 
from beef heart was commonly used, but the content and stability of its 
lipids varied from laboratory to laboratory. What was needed was a 
chemically defined antigen that would standardize the test. From 1906 
to 1941, researchers worldwide tried to identify the antigen's active 
component. Dr. Pangborn from the Division of Laboratories and Research 
(now the' Wadsworth Center) of the New York State Department of Health 
succeeded. She named the newly discovered phospholipid cardiolipin, and 
a new "gold standard" was established. The identification and isolation 
of cardiolipin was not easy. Dr. Pangborn took four years to identify 
the compound and a decade to refine the procedure so that cardiolipin 
could be commercially reproduced. Investigators at the Venereal Disease 
Research Laboratory (VDRL), U.S. Marine Hospital in Staten Island, NY, 
confirmed the antigen's utility in testing for syphilis and proposed 
the name VDRL for the antigen and the test. The cardiolipin test 
detected 10 to 15 percent fewer false positives than the old, crude 
antigen, saving countless people from being unfairly stigmatized and 
unnecessarily treated. In 1948, when the patent for the process to 
recover and refine cardiolipin was issued, the World Health 
Organization (WHO) estimated that this sexually transmitted disease 
affected 20 to 60 million people. Penicillin had also recently been 
shown effective against syphilis, and the reliability of the new 
cardiolipin test allowed for accurate monitoring of the effects of the 
antibiotic treatment. To ensure quality control worldwide, Dr. Pangborn 
handed the method for producing cardiolipin over to WHO, forgoing any 
personal gain. Born in New York City in 1907, Dr. Pangborn studied at 
home. Until the last two years of secondary school, when she entered 
Brooklyn Friends High School, graduating in 1922 at the age of 15. The 
following year she entered Smith College in Northhampton, MA, where she 
graduated summa cum laude in 1927. In 1931, she received a doctorate in 
chemistry from Yale University, followed by postdoctoral studies in the 
same depaitment. Dr. Pangborn joined the Department of Health in 1933, 
where she worked until retirement in 1970. Thanks to this woman's 
dedication to laboratory science and generosity of spirit in promoting 
public health, officials worldwide were better able to control syphilis 
and other treponemal diseases.
--- End Forwarded Message ---
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