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Dr. Florence Siebert's most notable contribution was the development of the procedure to isolate and purify the crystalline tuberculin derivative that is used for the Standard TB Test.
Florence Siebert was born on October 6, 1897 in Easton, Pennsylvania. She contracted polio as a young child from which she partially recovered; from then on, she walked with a limp. She never let her disability interfere with her life and work. She began to read biographies of famous scientists as a teenager, a hobby she continued throughout her life.
She earned an A.B. from Gaucher College and a Ph.D. in biochemistry from Yale University. At Yale Siebert's major professor was Dr. Lafayette Mendel: during this her work there she discovered a method to eliminate the bacterial contamination of intravenous milk protein injections.
In 1923 Siebert went to the University of Chicago as a Porter Fellow. From 1924-28 she served first as pathology instructor and finally as assistant professor of biochemistry in 1928. She developed her method to obtain the purified protein derivative (PPD) that became the basis for the Standard TB Test. In 1932 Siebert was appointed assistant professor of biochemistry at the Henry Phipps Institute at the University of Pennsylvania. She moved through the ranks to full professor and upon retirement in 1959, was appointed professor emeritus. She continued research and studied bacteria isolated from cancerous tumors until her death on August 23, 1991 in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Florence Siebert was awarded the Trudeau Medal from the National Tuberculosis Association in 1938 and the Garvan Medal from the American Chemical Society in 1942. She was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1990.
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