Leona Ruth Hurwitz Zacharias (1907 – 1990) was an American biologist and medical researcher whose career spanned several prestigious institutions and diverse fields. She’s best known for her part in pioneering research on retrolental fibroplasia (RLF), now known as retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), which causes incurable blindness in the smallest premature infants. Her work was instrumental in identifying the primary causes of ROP, leading to radically improved neonatal care and outcomes. Zacharias also made substantial contributions to the understanding of human maturation, as measured by, the onset of menstruation and its variability in adolescent girls.
Early life and education Leona Ruth Hurwitz was born in New York City to a middle-class Jewish family with roots in Eastern Europe. Her father worked as a high school mathematics teacher. In 1927, Zacharias graduated from Barnard College, where she majored in Biology. She earned her master’s degree in Zoology from Columbia University in 1928, and went on to pursue her Ph.D. at Columbia University's College of Surgeons and Physicians (P&S). In 1935, Zacharias became an Instructor of Anatomy at P&S and was awarded a research fellowship in Embryology in 1936. In 1938, she received her Ph.D. in anatomy, being the sole woman to achieve this distinction that year. Zacharias’s doctoral research explored cellular proliferation in grafted segments of the embryonic spinal cord and was published in the "Journal of Experimental Zoology."
Research and career In 1935, Zacharias joined the P&S faculty as an Anatomy Instructor, a position she held for nearly a decade. During this period, she also held other research and teaching positions. She served as a research assistant in the Herpetology Department at the American Museum of Natural History, a research associate at Mount Sinai Hospital, and an Instructor of Embryology at Hunter College. In 1945, P&S appointed Zacharias to the position of Associate of Optometry. In 1946, she moved to Boston, where she worked at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary in various research positions until 1955. Also in 1946, she was appointed Research Associate and Instructor in Ophthalmic Research at Harvard Medical School. This career shift coincided with the emergence of a troubling medical mystery.
Before the advent of modern medical technologies, many premature infants did not survive due to their underdeveloped organs. However, with the introduction of incubators and other innovations, premature babies were given a better chance. Despite these advancements, a significant and alarming issue arose. In the 1940s, startlingly, many tiny, premature infants were going blind shortly after birth; the cause was unknown. This phenomenon was initially termed retrolental fibroplasia, which is characterized by the formation of fibrous tissue behind the lens of the eye. In the disease, the normal growth of retinal blood vessels is disrupted, leading to the formation of abnormal and disorganized vessels, which can leak and cause scarring. The scarring pulls on the retina, which can detach from the back of the eye, leading to impaired vision and, in severe cases, complete and irreversible blindness. The first case was documented in 1941 and by the late 1940s, this puzzling disease had escalated into a global epidemic. At least as perplexing, RLF was occurring almost entirely in affluent countries with advanced medical technologies; it was all but unknown in poorer nations lacking sophisticated hospital care for premature babies.
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