Florence
Rena Sabin (November 9, 1871
– October 3, 1953) was an American medical scientist. She was a pioneer for women in science; she was the first woman to hold a full
professorship at Johns Hopkins School of
Medicine, the first woman elected to the National
Academy of Sciences, and the first woman to head a department at
the Rockefeller
Institute for Medical Research. During her years of retirement, she pursued a
second career as a public health activist
in Colorado, and in 1951 received the Albert Lasker Public
Service Award for this work. On November 9, 1871, Serena Sabin
gave birth to her youngest daughter, Florence Rena Sabin, in Central City, Colorado.
Florence's mother was a schoolteacher who later died from puerperal fever (sepsis) in 1878. Her father, George K.
Sabin, was a mining engineer living and working on site with his family. Shortly after her mother's death, Florence and
her sister (Mary) moved in with their Uncle Albert in Chicago before relocating
to Vermont with their paternal grandparents. Uncle Albert was a tremendous
influence on Florence, and from her relationship with him, she developed a love
of nature and a keen interest in books and music. The Sabin girls soon moved
with their uncle to an old family farm in Vermont. Florence became very
interested in the life story of Levi Sabin, an ancestor who had graduated from
medical school in 1798. Florence’s father had always wanted to be a doctor, but
the obligations of mining overwhelmed him, and his thoughts of a medical career
slowly disappeared. But Florence began to secretly harbor her father’s dream.
In 1885 Florence enrolled at Vermont Academy (and graduated in 1889), where her
scientific interests were finally allowed to develop. Throughout her childhood
Sabin had intentions of becoming a pianist, however, she was never musically
talented, causing her to shift her focus on a future in science during her time
at Vermont Academy, Saxtons
River, VT. Sabin earned her bachelor's degree from Smith College in 1893. For two years she taught high
school mathematics in Denver followed by one year of zoology at Smith as a
means to finance her first year of graduate school.
In 1896, Sabin enrolled at the Johns
Hopkins University School of Medicine as one of fourteen women
in her class. The school opened in 1893 and was co-ed from the beginning
because of an early donor's contingency which required the admittance of female
students. While
at Hopkins, Sabin’s observational skills and perseverance in the laboratory
caught anatomist Franklin P. Mall's
attention. Mall inspired Sabin by helping narrow her focus onto two projects
well regarded by scientists[5] and foundational to her future research and
consequent legacy. The first project was to produce a three-dimensional model
of a newborn baby’s brain stem which became the focus of the textbook, An
Atlas of the Medulla and Midbrain (1901).
The second project involved the embryological development of the lymphatic
system which asserted that the lymphatic system is formed from the embryo’s
blood vessels and not other tissues. Sabin
graduated from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 1900. Upon
graduation, Sabin obtained an internship at Johns Hopkins Hospital under
physician Sir William Osler. Following a
one-year internship with Osler, she won a research fellowship in the Department
of Anatomy at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine where she continued to work with
Mall. Shortly thereafter, a Fellowship in the Department of Anatomy at Johns
Hopkins was created for her. In 1902 she began to teach in the Department of
Anatomy at Johns Hopkins. By 1905 she was promoted to associate professor and
finally appointed professor of embryology and histology in June 1917, the first
woman to become a full professor at a medical college. In 1921, Sabin was named
the first female president of the American Association of
Anatomists. She continued her research on the origins of blood,
blood vessels, blood cells, the histology of the brain, and the pathology and
immunology of tuberculosis at Hopkins. In 1924, Sabin’s work on the origins of blood
vessels earned her membership in the National Academy of
Science.
In 1925, Sabin left Johns Hopkins after completing her research amidst
institutional discrimination and her desire to research full time. In September
1925 she became head of the Department of Cellular Studies at the Rockefeller Institute for
Medical Research in New York City. Her
research focused on the lymphatic system, blood vessels and cells, and tuberculosis. In 1925, she was voted into the National Academy
of Science. She was the first woman to gain membership in this prestigious body
and would remain the lone female member for the next 20 years. In
1926, she joined the research committee of the National Tuberculosis
Association. The committee's purpose was to consolidate all of the
tuberculosis research taking place with the hope of controlling the disease
proactively. While here, Sabin devoted her research to immune cells,
monocytes in particular, which developed into other cells. Sabin spent her
final years at the institute determining the effects imposed by foreign
substances and their consequent formation of antibodies. In 1938,
Sabin left her position at Rockefeller Institute and moved back to Colorado for
retirement.