Lady microbiologist of the week : Jessie Isabelle Price

 

Lady microbiologist of the week : Episode 5

     Jessie Isabelle Price who was the veterinary Microbiologist. She was born in 1930 in Montrose, US. 

     She wanted to be a physician, but could not because of lack of money. Price earned a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture in 1953. Price worked for three years as a laboratory technician in the Poultry Disease Research Farm in the Veterinary College at Cornell to save money for further study. She completed her master's in 1958 in "Morphological and Cultural Studies of Pleuropneumonia-like Organisms and Their Variants Isolated from Chickens", and doctorate in 1959. Price isolated and reproduced the bacterium, Pasteurella anatipestifer, in white pekin ducklings infected with a disease that was a major killer among duck farmers at that time. 

     After completion of her PhD, Price joined the Cornell Duck Research Laboratory. She worked on developing a vaccine, undertaking trials of mixed flocks of vaccinated and unvaccinated ducklings working every day, and conducting daily autopsies (a specialised surgical procedure used to determine the cause and manner of death). 

     Price isolated and reproduced Pasteurella anatipestifer that was an essential step for vaccine development.

Akanksha Joshi,

Microbiol,

RSML