Dr. Bernice Eddy

Bernice Eddy was born in Glendale, West Virginia, but grew up in Marietta, Ohio after her father’s death. She took pre-medical courses at Marietta College, intending to be a physician like her father and two brothers.

During her senior year of college, she was awarded a fellowship in bacteriology at the University of Cincinnati, thus starting on her path to research. She also received her masters and Ph.D. while there. She later researched leprosy at a Public Health Service hospital in Louisiana, where she met her future husband Dr. Jerald G. Wooley, who would lead them to NIH.

Dr. Eddy Joined the NIH Laboratory of Biologics Control (which became the Division of Biologics Standards [DBS] in 1955) in 1937.

In 1956 she worked with Dr. Sarah Stewart of the National Cancer Institute, and they identified the S-E (Stewart-Eddy) polyoma virus, which can cause tumors. Dr. Eddy also identified the simian virus 40 (SV-40). Her work led to the newborn hamster being the preferred animal for testing potentially oncogenic viruses of mammalian origin. Twice Drs. Stewart and Eddy were nominated for the Nobel Prize for their work on the S-E polyoma virus, but unfortunately, they never won.

Beginning in 1962 Dr. Eddy was the Chief of the Section on Experimental Virology within the Laboratory of Virology & Rickettsiology in the DBS.

Dr. Eddy was an expert on pneumococcus and streptococcus, influenza and polio-myelitis vaccines, and on tumor-producing viruses.

She won a Superior Service Medal from the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (DHEW) in 1967 for her work on control testing of vaccines for polio-myelitis and respiratory diseases, and for her discovery and characterization of tumorigenic viruses.

Dr. Eddy worked in Building 29, Room 207, then moved to Building 29A once it opened in 1967, where she worked in Room 3B20.

Photo from the NIH Record

Photo from National Library of Medicine (Dr. Eddy is on the right, front row) Image from Always There

Photo here

Group photo circa 1960 for polio meetings on campus. Dr. Eddy is third from right. Image from Always There