More on Rachel Fuller Brown, Elizabeth Lee Hazen, and Nystatin • Rachel Fuller Brown and Elizabeth Lee Hazen Rachel Fuller Brown and Elizabeth Hazen invented Nystatin, the world's first useful antifungal antibiotic.

Related Innovations • Medical Innovations • Women Inventors

As researchers for the New York Department of Health, Elizabeth Lee Hazen and Rachel Fuller Brown combined their efforts to develop the anti-fungal antibiotic drug nystatin. The drug, patented in 1957 was used to cure many disfiguring, disabling fungal infections as well as to balance the effect of many antibacterial drugs. In addition to human ailments, the drug has been used to treat such problems as Dutch Elm’s disease and to restore water-damaged artwork from the effects of mold.

The two scientists donated the royalties from their invention, over $13 million dollars, to the nonprofit Research Corporation for the advancement of academic scientific study. Elizabeth Lee Hazen and Rachel Fuller Brown were inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1994.

ANTIBIOTIC
(Gr. anti, "against"; bios, "life") An antibiotic is a chemical substance produced by one organism that is destructive to another.

Continue with >>> Medical Innovations