Born: 19 November 1910, United States
Died: 6 July 1993
Country most active: United States
Also known as: NA
The following bio was written by Emma Rosen, author of On This Day She Made History: 366 Days With Women Who Shaped the World and This Day In Human Ingenuity & Discovery: 366 Days of Scientific Milestones with Women in the Spotlight, and has been republished with permission.
Gladys Lounsbury Hobby was an American microbiologist whose research significantly contributed to the development of antibiotics, particularly in turning penicillin from a laboratory experiment into a widely manufactured drug during World War II.
From 1934 to 1943, Hobby worked at Presbyterian Hospital and Columbia Medical School, where she joined a research team investigating the potential applications of penicillin.
Hobby is known for her significant contribution to developing a human-friendly form of penicillin. In 1940, along with her colleagues Dr. Karl Meyer and Dr. Martin Henry Dawson, she reached out to Howard Florey and Ernst Chain to obtain a penicillin sample. They decided to produce penicillin themselves, quickly mastering the fermentation process and refining it into an effective drug. Between 1940 and 1941, Hobby, Meyer, and Dawson conducted pivotal tests of penicillin on humans, revealing its potent germ-killing properties and capacity to mitigate infectious diseases. This breakthrough enabled critical medical procedures like organ transplantation and open-heart surgery.
Their research garnered substantial media attention, leading to essential funding from the United States Government for mass-producing penicillin during World War II, ultimately saving countless soldiers’ lives.
In 1944, she moved to Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, researching antibiotics. In 1959, Hobby became chief of research at the Veterans Administration Hospital in New Jersey, studying various infectious disease topics. She was an assistant clinical research professor at Cornell University Medical College for 18 years. In 1963, she became the first female president of the New York Tuberculosis Association.