Bernice Eddy
| Bernice Eddy | |
|---|---|
Bernice Eddy as a staff member of the Laboratory of Biologics Control, 1938
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| Born | Bernice E. Eddy September 30, 1903 Glen Dale, West Virginia |
| Died | May 29, 1989 (aged 85) |
| Nationality | American |
| Fields |
Medical research, virology and epidemiology |
| Institutions | United States Public Health Service, National Institutes of Health, American Public Health Association |
| Alma mater |
Marietta College University of Cincinnati |
| Known for | first describing the polyomavirus, work on the polio vaccine |
| Spouse | Dr. Jerald Wooley |
Bernice Eddy (1903–1989) was an American virologist and epidemiologist. She and Sarah Elizabeth Stewart are known for their discoveries related to polyomavirus and SV40 in particular, a cancer-causing monkey virus that millions of people were exposed to through contaminated polio vaccines.
Eddy was born to Dr. Nathan E. Eddy and Clara C. Eddy (née Griffith) in Glendale, West Virginia. She was the oldest of four children.
She earned a degree in bacteriology from Marietta College in 1924 and a Ph.D. from the University of Cincinnati in 1927.
She married Dr. Jerald Wooley.
Building on earlier work by Ludwig Gross, Sarah Elizabeth Stewart and Bernice E. Eddy were the first to describe the polyomavirus. They satisfied Koch's postulates to demonstrate that polyomavirus can cause cancer to be transmitted from animal to animal. The virus was named the Stewart-Eddy or SE polyoma virus, after their respective surnames.
In 1954, while the NIH was testing the first commercial polio vaccines, Eddy's job was to test the vaccines from five different companies. Testing the vaccines on 18 monkeys, she and her team discovered that the inactivated vaccine manufactured by Cutter Laboratories contained residual live poliovirus, resulting in the monkeys showing polio-like symptoms and paralysis. Eddy reported her findings to William Workman, head of the Laboratory of Biologics Control, but her findings were never given to the vaccine licensing advisory committee. Although then-NIH director William Sebrell was notified, he chose to ignore Eddy's findings and proceeded to license the Cutter vaccine along with the others. Dr. James Shannon, the associate director of the NIH, managed to get the vaccines recalled.
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