Elizabeth Bugie


Elizabeth Bugie Gregory was an American biochemist who identified Streptomycin, an antibiotic that was active against Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Selman Waksman went on to win the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1952 and took the credit for the discovery.

Early life

Bugie's father, Charles Bugie, never studied beyond high school, and was committed to her education. Her mother was Madeline Turbett. Bugie studied microbiology at the New Jersey College for Women. She was a Masters student at Rutgers University, working with Selman Waksman. She developed several antimicrobial substances. Her Masters thesis, Production of antibiotic substances by aspergillus flavus and chaetomium cochliodes, looked to optimise the production of flavicin and chaetomin.

Career

Bugie worked on antimicrobials that could protect plants from Dutch elm disease. In 1944 Bugie, Waksman and Schatz identified streptomycin in cultures of soil organisms, an antibiotic which was found to be active against Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Bugie was told that it was not important for her name to be on the patent as she would "one day get married and have a family". Selman Waksman went on to win the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1952 and took all the credit for the discovery. Waksman claimed that Bugie was more involved in the discovery than Albert Schatz. Bugie was eventually awarded 0.2% of the royalties for streptomycin. After the discovery of streptomycin, Bugie worked on micromonosporin, a pigmented glycoprotein that was active against gram-positive bacteria. Bugie worked for Merck & Co., evaluating pyrazinoic acid and penicillin as antibiotics against mycobacterium tuberculosis. After raising her family, Bugie eventually returned to academia to study library science.
Bugie's daughter, Eileen Gregory, is a microbiologist at Rollins College. Bugie died on April 10, 2001.