Women of Science Lost In History #2
Dorothy Hansine Andersen
In the previous article of our series Women of Science Lost in History, we discussed how despite her revolutionary discovery of the effect of carbon dioxide on global warming and climate change, Eunice Newton Foote’s efforts had been overlooked, causing her to be buried in the past.
Yet another female scientist who carries grave importance in the history of science, but was unfortunately overlooked, is Dorothy Hansine Andersen.
Andersen was born in Asheville, North Carolina in 1901. She earned her medical degree from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 1926 as one of the only five women in her class(1). Andersen then completed a surgical internship at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, New York. However, the thoughts upon women and their lack of capacity of deciphering complex ideas of society had also fostered at the Strong Memorial Hospital, resulting in the rejection of Dorothy Andersen’s request to pursue surgical residency (2). Nonetheless, she was a determined woman – she was going to become a pathologist regardless of what society wished.
Thus, she joined the pathology staff at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons where she carried out research on endocrine glands and female reproduction. In 1935, she earned a doctorate in medical sciences, causing her to be a part of the small female percentage, only five percent, of practicing physicians in the 1930s (3). As a part of her work, Andersen mostly worked with dead bodies; autopsies were the easiest and most available method of conducting pathological research at the time (4). Before she was made chief of pathology at Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital in 1958, she was required to dissect the organs of another child that had just died. Just a year ago, the three-year-old girl had been diagnosed with celiac disease, an illness that results from the autoimmune response to the ingestion of gluten by the small intestine (5). According to science journalist Bijal P. Trivedi, the girl had a “distended belly, skinny limbs, [and] foul, persistent diarrhoea”, creating a gruesome image. While performing her autopsy, Dorothy Andersen had begun to notice some differences between the symptoms of celiac disease and those of the girl. She noticed that the airways of her lungs were “plugged full of mucus, thick, sticky, green mucus”, and following the horrid sight, she found it difficult trying to analyze the pancreas. When she tried to cut into the pancreas, “she heard a scraping sound as if she were cutting through grit or sand” (6).
With this autopsy and the knowledge obtained from her extensive reading, Andersen. concluded that the issue at hand had nothing to do with celiac disease. Rather than an inflammation in the small intestine, the problem had emerged from clogged up lung airways along with the tubes and lymphatic vessels in the pancreas. According to Brian O’Sullivan, professor of pediatrics at the Dartmouth Geisel School of Medicine, Dorothy Hansine Anderson was the first to recognise the disease, later known as cystic fibrosis, “as a separate entity” (7).
Cystic fibrosis (CF) is an autosomal recessive genetic disease that results from mutations in the gene that codes for a certain protein (CFTR). This means that CF is not linked to sex chromosomes – an individual is affected by the disease only if they have both copies of the mutated alleles, which are different forms of the same gene. The mutation either causes the malfunctioning of the CFTR protein or stops its production, affecting multiple organs including the lungs and the pancreas (8). Chloride, a component of salt, is useful in regulating water distribution and the overall balance of fluids in our cells. The malfunction of the CFTR protein results in a lack of chloride on cell surfaces, making the mucus produced by our body thick and sticky (9).
While mucus is also an essential substance for our body, responsible for the role of lubricating and filtrating our respiratory system, once it gets thick and sticky, it clogs the respiratory system and attracts pathogens. As a result, it gradually becomes harder to breathe for CF patients over time. The mucus also affects the pancreas, preventing the release of digestive enzymes, eventually, resulting in malnutrition and poor growth. The common symptoms of malnutrition, diarrhea, and such were the causes of the misdiagnosis of CF as they are very similar to symptoms of celiac disease. While children couldn’t make it past toddlerhood with the disease, after Andersen’s identification of the disease, the estimated lifespan for the patients increased by 50 years.
Throughout her life, Andersen rejected the conventional idea of what roles were and what roles were not suitable for women . She valued the professional and individual equality of women, trying to apply her determination in her advocacy as well. “No men could [disturb] me when she was alive,” shared Celia Ores, pediatrician and colleague of Dorothy Andersen, once more proving Andersen’s strength of character.
This all seems to beg the question – as a revolutionary scientist and an inspirational person, how were Andersen’s contributions to science so easily overlooked?
Despite being the one who shone light upon the disease even in the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, Andersen was described as the mere publisher of the “first characterisation” of CF (10). While this is an accurate statement, it lacks the full credit Andersen deserves. Dorothy Hansine Andersen’s article, “Cystic Fibrosis of the Pancreas and Its Relation to Celiac Disease: A Clinical and Pathologic Study” was published in the American Journal of Diseases of Children on August 1, 1938. The article was written by Andersen herself, discussing her own observations and the extensive reading she has done. In comparison, in 2022, it usually takes at least a dozen researchers to complete a full paper.
Andersen was a quintessential example of a woman who challenged the gender roles assigned to them by society. While society shattered her hopes of becoming a surgeon, it hadn’t been enough to stop her from taking leaps akin to life-changing research in science.
Works Cited
1. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanres/article/PIIS2213-2600(14)70057-8/fulltext
2. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/lost-women-of-science-podcast-season-one-the-pathologist-in-the-basement/
3. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1200640/
4. https://celiac.org/about-celiac-disease/what-is-celiac-disease/
5. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-lost-women-of-science-episode-1-the-question-mark/
6. https://sites.dartmouth.edu/biomt/author/f003xx6/
7. https://www.cff.org/intro-cf/about-cystic-fibrosis
8. https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/chloride
