Mary Jane Osborn

When a young Mary Jane Osborn announced she wanted to be a nurse when she grew up, her father wondered aloud why she shouldn't be a doctor instead. Fueled by his faith that she could succeed in what was then a man's profession, Osborn went on to study physiology and biochemistry. Her work as a graduate student revealed how methotrexate, now a major cancer drug, acts on the body. Osborn then turned her abilities to microbiology, and spent decades exploring how bacteria make lipopolysaccharides-substances that help give potentially deadly bacteria their toxicity and virulence. Osborn is a professor in the Molecular, Microbial and Structural Biology department at the University of Connecticut Health Center. She was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1978.