Eleanor Albert Bliss

Eleanor Albert Bliss (1899–1987) was an American bacteriologist who did pioneering work on antimicrobials, especially regarding the development and use of sulfa drugs.

Her discovery of group F streptococcus led to the development of the first drug treatment for streptococcus infection.^[1]

Early life and career

Bliss was born in Jamestown, Rhode Island on December 16, 1899. She received her BA from Bryn Mawr College, before going on to work at Johns Hopkins University, where she received a Doctorate of Science.

As a professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore in 1939, and alongside her colleague Perrin Long, Bliss tested sulfa drugs on animal and then humans before the first case of streptococcus was cured in 1936.^[1] This treatment went on to be used extensively in World War II. They published their findings in the paper "The Clinical and Experimental Use of Sulfanilamide, Sulfapyridine and Allied Compounds" which appeared in The American Journal of Nursing.^[2]

Bliss worked at Johns Hopkins University until 1952, when she accepted the position of Graduate Dean and Professor of Biology at Bryn Mawr.^[3]

References

1. Wayne, Tiffany K. (2010). American Women of Science since 1900. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO. p. 241. ISBN 978-1-59884-158-9.
2. Long, Perrin H.; Bliss, Eleanor A. "The Clinical and Experimental Use of Sulfanilamide, Sulfapyridine and Allied Compounds". The American Journal of Nursing 39 (12): 1409–1410. doi:10.2307/3414484.
3. "Dr. Eleanor Bliss, 88, Drug Research Expert". The New York Times. June 30, 1987.