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Rebecca Lancefield

Rebecca Craighill Lancefield (January 5, 1895 - March 3, 1981) was a prominent American microbiologist. She is most famous for her serological classification of streptococcal bacteria.^[1] This is based upon the carbohydrate composition of bacterial antigen.^[2] The Lancefield classification system is still used internationally today.

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Biography

She was born at Fort Wadsworth, Staten Island, New York. She was educated at Wellesley College, Massachusetts and Columbia University, New York. At Columbia, she gained her Ph.D. in 1925. Eventually, she became professor of microbiology at Columbia University from 1958-1965. For much of her professional career she carried out research at the famous Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research. In 1973 she was awarded the degree of Doctor of Science (honoris causa) by this institution.

Classification

Group A - Streptococcus pyogenes
Group B - Streptococcus agalactiae
Group C - Streptococcus equisimilis, Streptococcus equi, Streptococcus zooepidemicus, Streptococcus dysgalactiae
Group D - Enterococci, Streptococcus bovis
Group E - Streptococcus milleri and mutans
Group F -
Group G - Streptococcus canis, Streptococcus dysgalactiae
Group L - Streptococcus dysgalactiae
Group R&S - Streptococcus suis

References

^ Lancefield RC (1933). "A serological differentiation of human and other groups of hemolytic streptococci.". J Exp Med 57: 571–95.
^ Patterson MJ (1996). Streptococcus. in: Baron's Medical Microbiology (Baron S et al, eds.), 4th ed., Univ of Texas Medical Branch. ISBN 0-9631172-1-1.