For a short month, February certainly has a lot of important days and events. Groundhog Day. Football’s Big Game. Chinese New Year. Valentine’s Day. NASCAR’s Daytona 500. Presidents Day. But there’s really only one event that runs across all 28 days of February (29 on Leap Years): Black History Month.
Back in September 1915, historian Carter G. Woodson and minister Jesse E. Moorland founded an organization that recognized and promoted achievements made by Black Americans and people of African descent. The organization – known today as the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) – sponsored a national “Negro History Week” in 1926 and encouraged communities across the country to host celebrations. Woodson and Moorland chose the second week of February since it aligned with the birthdays of Frederick Douglass, an escaped slave-turned-social reformer, orator and author, and Abraham Lincoln, the former US president who abolished slavery.
By the 1960s, “Negro History Week” had evolved into a month-long event for many communities throughout the United States. President Gerald Ford made it official in 1976, publicly recognizing Black History Month during America’s bicentennial year.
In honor of Black History Month, Peak gratefully acknowledges the medical contributions made everywhere by Black clinicians, scientists, inventors and healthcare innovators. We’ve highlighted several such pioneers and historic advancements in medical care here, though we invite you to discover others and learn more at https://asalh.org. And for more about these medical marvels, we invite you to check out our Instagram Stories throughout the month of February.
1. CHARLES RICHARD DREW
Surgeon and hematologist Charles R. Drew’s radical advancements in the collection, processing and preservation of blood proved critical in the early days of World War II. As injuries mounted for soldiers and civilians in England, Drew was named medical director of the Blood for Britain project. It was here that he fully applied his discoveries, addressing England’s vital need for 5,000 liters of dried plasma for transfusions and organizing blood drives that resulted in donations from nearly 15,000 Americans. Appointed director of the very first American Red Cross Blood Bank in 1941, Drew’s innovations promptly led to the development of mobile blood donation stations with storage refrigerators – what we know today as “bloodmobiles.”
Despite earning the title of “Father of the Blood Bank,” Drew soon resigned from his position. He refused to accept a military policy that the Red Cross reject blood donations from African Americans, even after the policy was modified to accept donations provided they remained segregated from other blood contributions. Thankfully, Drew found other ways of keeping busy – he went on to become Chief Surgeon at Freedman’s Hospital in Washington, D.C., as well as the first Black surgeon selected as an examiner on the American Board of Surgery.
Read Charles R. Drew’s dissertation, “Banked Blood: A Study in Blood Preservation” [1]
2. PATRICIA BATH
It’s a weak pun, but one really must almost see to believe the remarkable achievements of this ophthalmologist, inventor and activist. Shortly after becoming the first African American to complete a residency in ophthalmology, Patricia Bath joined the Department of Ophthalmology at UCLA’s Jules Stein Eye Institute as its first female faculty member. Bath also co-founded the American Institute for the Prevention of Blindness (AIPB) in 1976 and, upon documenting that African Americans’ lack of access to ophthalmological care resulted in nearly twice the rate of blindness compared to whites, she also championed a program in community ophthalmology,[2] a now-worldwide medical discipline promoting eye health and blindness prevention. In 1983, Bath formed the Ophthalmology Residency Training program at UCLA-Drew. As the program’s chair, she was the first woman to hold such a position in the United States.
Bath’s most notable “first” came about with her invention of the Laserphaco Probe in 1986. A more precise-yet-less invasive surgical tool that utilized laser technology to treat cataracts, the Laserphaco Probe resulted in Bath becoming the first African American female doctor to receive a medical patent. Bath went on to hold four U.S. patents related to the device, as well as international patents in Japan, Canada and Europe. More important, her innovation restored, and continues to restore, the eyesight of countless individuals, regardless of color.
3. PERCY LAVON JULIAN
Research chemist Percy Lavon Julian was more like a medicinal MacGyver, a resourceful pioneer in the chemical manufacturing of medicinal compounds from abundant plant sources. In 1935, Julian synthesized the alkaloid physostigmine from the Calabar bean, making it a readily available drug treatment for glaucoma. After becoming Director of Research for Glidden Company’s Soya Products Division a year later, he refined soy protein that resulted in multiple innovations, including one that became the basis for Aero-Foam, a flame retardant the Navy used to extinguish fires on aircraft carriers during World War II.
Julian’s greatest discoveries began in 1939, after an accidental mixture of soybean oil and water formed small steroid crystals containing stigmasterol, a plant steroid that could be converted into the pregnancy hormone progesterone. Through his findings, the chemist developed equipment and processes that enabled Glidden to cost-effectively mass-produce synthetic progesterone and, subsequently, other sex hormones like estrogen and testosterone. Julian soon followed that success by using wild yams from Mexico and Guatemala to synthesize cortisone and other corticosteroids for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. Leaving Glidden in 1953 to open his own laboratories in the US, Mexico and Guatemala, Julian continued to synthesize hormones at low cost and in bulk quantities until he sold his properties eight years later. The foundation he laid, however, launched an industry that is now stronger and more popular than ever.
Learn more about Percy Lavon Julian's remarkable achievements at acs.org
4. DANIEL HALE WILLIAMS
Often called “Dr. Dan” by his patients, it’s rather fitting that Daniel Hale Williams was a cardiologist. As one of only four Black physicians operating in Chicago, he became the heart that responded against the discrimination which denied African Americans of opportunities within the medical community. In 1891, Williams gave life to Provident Hospital and Training School for Nurses, the first US hospital with a racially integrated staff, as well a nursing and intern program that hired African Americans. It was in this institution two years later, without the benefit of antibiotics, anesthetics, X-rays or blood transfusions, that Williams achieved another medical milestone: He was credited as the first surgeon to perform successful open-heart surgery on a human being. (The patient, a stab-wound victim named James Cornish, survived more than 20 years after the surgery.)
Similar to what he did with Provident, Williams revitalized services and created opportunities for Black medical practitioners at Freedmen’s Hospital in Washington, D.C. “Dr. Dan” took it another step further in 1895; since the American Medical Association wouldn’t grant African Americans membership, he co-founded the National Medical Association, a professional and scientific organization representing Black medical professionals and their patients. In 1913, in recognition of his achievements, Williams became a charter member, and the only Black doctor, in the American College of Surgeons.
5. MARIE MAYNARD DALY
In 1948, Marie Maynard Daly became the first Black American woman to receive a PhD from Columbia University, and the first to earn a doctorate in chemistry in the United States. Her contributions in biochemistry were impressive from the get-go. Daly’s research on protein synthesis as well as the properties and composition of histones[3] – proteins around which DNA wraps itself and are key components of gene expression – are considered fundamental, especially since she published her findings years before the structure of DNA was decoded. (Upon accepting their Nobel Prize in Physiology in 1962, James Watson and Francis Crick cited one of Daly’s papers on protein synthesis[4] as a key contribution to their discovery.)
In the mid-1950s, Daly studied the contributing factors leading to hypertension. In the process, she established a groundbreaking correlation between high levels of cholesterol[5] (a precursor to five major classes of hormones) and clogged arteries. This established a firm understanding as to how heart attacks occur, as well as a foundation for others’ research on the impact that diet, sugars and smoking can have on the cardiac and circulatory systems. Daly again changed her focus of study in the 1970s, this time to the uptake of creatine[6] in muscle cells. And again she set the bar for those who followed, identifying the peak conditions under which muscle tissue best absorbed the substance from the blood. In recognition of her incredible lifetime achievements, Daly was honored by the National Technical Association as one of the country’s top 50 women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math).
6. KIZZMEKIA CORBETT
The quantity of this immunologist’s accolades may not yet match those of her peers mentioned in this article. However, the quality of Kizzmekia Corbett’s work has become increasingly integral on a global scale. It’s particularly important to the African American community – mistrust of vaccines runs high due to a history of national racism, and research indicates that a disproportionate amount of Black Americans are more likely of being infected with COVID-19.[7]
Corbett is a research fellow and the scientific lead for the Coronavirus Vaccines & Immunopathogenesis Team at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Vaccine Research Center (VRC). She and her team, as well as the drug companies with whom they’ve partnered, are producing vaccines for novel coronavirus[8] at breakneck speed; until now, only one shot (for treating mumps in the 1960s) had been developed, sampled and approved within four years. If that isn’t enough, Corbett has also spent the past several years working on a universal influenza vaccine that’s slated for Phase 1 clinical trial. Praised for her work by Dr. Anthony Fauci, the leading infectious disease doctor and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Corbett’s work could well save millions…and her growing voice as a mentor[9] among the Black community may unite millions more in the process.
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References:
[1] Original Repository. Howard University. Moorland-Spingarn Research Center. Charles R. Drew Papers. 12739.
[2] Bath PE. Rationale for a program in community ophthalmology. J Natl Med Assoc. 1979 Feb;71(2):145-8. PMID: 423288; PMCID: PMC2537323.
[3] DALY MM, MIRSKY AE, RIS H. The amino acid composition and some properties of histones. J Gen Physiol. 1951 Mar 20;34(4):439-50. doi: 10.1085/jgp.34.4.439. PMID: 14824510; PMCID: PMC2147226.
[4] ALLFREY V, DALY MM, MIRSKY AE. Synthesis of protein in the pancreas. II. The role of ribonucleoprotein in protein synthesis. J Gen Physiol. 1953 Nov 20;37(2):157-75. doi: 10.1085/jgp.37.2.157. PMID: 13109153; PMCID: PMC2147435.
[5] DEMING QB, MOSBACH EH, BEVANS M, DALY MM, ABELL LL, MARTIN E, BRUN LM, HALPERN E, KAPLAN R. Blood pressure, cholesterol content of serum and tissues and atherogenesis in the rat. J Exp Med. 1958 Apr 1;107(4):581-98. doi: 10.1084/jem.107.4.581. PMID: 13513919; PMCID: PMC2136835.
[6] Daly MM, Seifter S. Uptake of creatine by cultured cells. Arch Biochem Biophys. 1980 Aug;203(1):317-24. doi: 10.1016/0003-9861(80)90182-4. PMID: 7406503.
[7] Louis-Jean J, Cenat K, Njoku CV, Angelo J, Sanon D. Coronavirus (COVID-19) and Racial Disparities: a Perspective Analysis. J Racial Ethn Health Disparities. 2020 Dec;7(6):1039-1045. doi: 10.1007/s40615-020-00879-4. Epub 2020 Oct 6. PMID: 33025419; PMCID: PMC7537778.
[8] Corbett KS, Flynn B, Foulds KE, Francica JR, Boyoglu-Barnum S, Werner AP, Flach B, O'Connell S, Bock KW, Minai M, Nagata BM, Andersen H, Martinez DR, Noe AT, Douek N, Donaldson MM, Nji NN, Alvarado GS, Edwards DK, Flebbe DR, Lamb E, Doria-Rose NA, Lin BC, Louder MK, O'Dell S, Schmidt SD, Phung E, Chang LA, Yap C, Todd JM, Pessaint L, Van Ry A, Browne S, Greenhouse J, Putman-Taylor T, Strasbaugh A, Campbell TA, Cook A, Dodson A, Steingrebe K, Shi W, Zhang Y, Abiona OM, Wang L, Pegu A, Yang ES, Leung K, Zhou T, Teng IT, Widge A, Gordon I, Novik L, Gillespie RA, Loomis RJ, Moliva JI, Stewart-Jones G, Himansu S, Kong WP, Nason MC, Morabito KM, Ruckwardt TJ, Ledgerwood JE, Gaudinski MR, Kwong PD, Mascola JR, Carfi A, Lewis MG, Baric RS, McDermott A, Moore IN, Sullivan NJ, Roederer M, Seder RA, Graham BS. Evaluation of the mRNA-1273 Vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 in Nonhuman Primates. N Engl J Med. 2020 Oct 15;383(16):1544-1555. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa2024671. Epub 2020 Jul 28. PMID: 32722908; PMCID: PMC7449230.
[9] Corbett K. The duty to mentor, be visible and represent. Nat Med. 2020 Nov;26(11):1670. doi: 10.1038/s41591-020-1122-y. PMID: 33077956.
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