Fern Pfafflin Rathe (January 8, 1930September 27, 2013) was an American organic chemist who helped discover

cathomycin Novobiocin, also known as albamycin or cathomycin, is an aminocoumarin antibiotic that is produced by the actinomycete ''Streptomyces niveus'', which has recently been identified as a subjective synonym for ''S. spheroides'' a member of the class ...

, an antibiotic used to treat strains of the bacteria ''

Staphylococcus ''Staphylococcus'' is a genus of Gram-positive bacteria in the family Staphylococcaceae from the order Bacillales. Under the microscope, they appear spherical (cocci), and form in grape-like clusters. ''Staphylococcus'' species are facultative ...

'', while working at pharmaceutical company Merck & Co.

Early life and education

Fern Pfafflin was born in

La Crosse, Wisconsin La Crosse is a city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of La Crosse County. Positioned alongside the Mississippi River, La Crosse is the largest city on Wisconsin's western border. La Crosse's population as of the 2020 census w ...

, on January 8, 1930. She was the only child of Edward and Bessie (Chalsma) Pfafflin. She was raised on a family farm near New Amsterdam, Wisconsin, attending a one-room rural schoolhouse. She graduated as the valedictorian of

Holmen High School Holmen High School is a high school in Holmen, Wisconsin operated by the Holmen School District. As of 2016, school enrollment was 1,112. The current facility was opened in 1994 and was expanded in 2000. 2020 led to another expansion after the ref ...

in 1948. Pfafflin attended

Carleton College Carleton College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Northfield, Minnesota. Founded in 1866, it had 2,105 undergraduate students and 269 faculty members in fall 2016. The 200-acre main campus is between Northfield and the 800-acre Cowling ...

and received her bachelor's degree in 1952, majoring in chemistry and zoology. She met her husband, John Rathe, at Carleton and they married in August 1953.

Career in chemical research

After graduating, Rathe worked as a biochemist for

Merck and Company Merck & Co., Inc. is an American multinational pharmaceutical company headquartered in Rahway, New Jersey, and is named for Merck Group, founded in Germany in 1668, of whom it was once the American arm. The company does business as Merck Sharp ...

Rahway, New Jersey Rahway () is a city in southern Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. A bedroom community of New York City, it is centrally located in the Rahway Valley region, in the New York metropolitan area. The city is southwest of Manhattan ...

, as a part of the research team of

Karl August Folkers Karl August Folkers (September 1, 1906 – December 7, 1997) was an American biochemist who made major contributions to the isolation and identification of bioactive natural products. Career Folkers graduated from the College of Liberal Arts a ...

. One of the projects she was involved in was a search for new antibiotics. Rathe, Folkers, and Edward Anthony Kaczka were first to isolate cathomycin in 1955. The antibiotic was crystallized for the first time at Rathe's lab bench. She worked at the Merck Research Lab until she started her family in 1956.

Later life

Rathe lived with her husband and four children in

Moline, Illinois Moline ( ) is a city located in Rock Island County, Illinois, United States. With a population of 42,985 in 2020, it is the largest city in Rock Island County. Moline is one of the Quad Cities, along with neighboring East Moline, Illinois, East M ...

. She earned her private pilot license with a twin-engine rating. Rathe was an active member of the

Ninety-Nines The Ninety-Nines: International Organization of Women Pilots, also known as The 99s, is an international organization that provides networking, mentoring, and flight scholarship opportunities to recreational and professional female pilots. Foun ...

organization for female pilots, and in 1971 she flew co-pilot in the Powder Puff Derby Air Race. Rathe died in

Guttenberg, Iowa Guttenberg is a city in Clayton County, Iowa, United States, along the Mississippi River. The population was 1,817 at the time of the 2020 census, down from 1,987 at the 2000 census. History Prairie La Porte, meaning "the door to the prairie," ...

, on September 27, 2013, after living with advanced

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...

References

External links

Cathomycin. I. Isolation and Characterization
1955 article from the ''

Journal of the American Chemical Society The ''Journal of the American Chemical Society'' is a weekly peer-reviewed scientific journal that was established in 1879 by the American Chemical Society. The journal has absorbed two other publications in its history, the ''Journal of Analytical ...

'' describing the isolation of cathomycin {{DEFAULTSORT:Rathe, Fern P. 1930 births 2013 deaths 20th-century American women scientists American women chemists 20th-century American chemists