Although chemist Alice Augusta Ball, an instructor at the College of Hawaii, is now properly credited with discovering an effective treatment for patients with leprosy—in a paper published posthumously in 1922 by Harry Hollmann, then-assistant surgeon at the Leprosy investigation Station, who worked with Ms. Ball—two others originally took credit for the discovery following her death, according to an article published in The New York Times. Predating the advent of the antibiotic, Ms. Ball’s new method involved injecting chaulmoogra oil into the body and became the most common therapeutic option for treating leprosy across the world in the 1920s and 1930s—until the introduction of sulfonamides. In 1915, Ms. Ball successfully demonstrated that by altering the fatty acids in the oil to convert them into ethyl esters, a form of the oil could be injected into the skin without causing ulcers. Among patients who received the then-novel treatment, 84 of them were lesion-free after 3 months to 4 years. However, the college’s president, Arthur Dean, PhD, and chemistry professor Richard Wrenshall, published Ms. Ball’s work as their own in 1920, soon after her sudden death (at the age of 24) in 1916. Having failed to credit her research, Dr. Dean and Mr. Wrenshall mass-produced the chaulmoogra oil injection. Not until researchers rediscovered her work at the University of Hawaii’s archives in the 1970s was Ms. Ball finally recognized for her achievements. Today, February 28 is known as Alice Augusta Ball Day. “Most chemists don’t hit their stride until their 30s or 40s. Just imagine what [Ms. Ball] could have done if she had lived. To do what she did when she did it was remarkable. She was a very talented chemist,” concluded Gregory Petsko, PhD, Adjunct Professor of Bioengineering at Harvard Medical School and Emeritus Professor of Chemistry at Brandeis University.
April 29, 2023