Crystalline Proteolipid B

Crystalline Proteolipid B

Warren Anatomical Museum

Archives for Women in Medicine

Lees, Marjorie Berman

Brain

Lipids

Protein

Proteolipids

Anatomical Preparation

Marjorie Berman Lees Collection

This Pyrex test tube contains crystalline proteolipid B that HMS Professor of Biological Chemistry Emeritus Marjorie Berman Lees (1923- ) isolated from brain white matter on July 12, 1949, early in her groundbreaking research with Dr. Jordi Folch-Pi (1911-1979) in lipid and protein isolation at the McLean Hospital Research Laboratories.

Folch-Pi and Lees describe the cumbersome process in a 1951 article in the Journal of biological chemistry, “To a filtrate from proteolipide A was added an equal volume of acetone, and, after mixing, the solution was allowed to stand at 4° overnight. A precipitate that had formed was collected by centrifugation and dried in a vacuum desiccator at room temperature to constant weight. 0.6 gm. of a white powder was obtained (proteolipide B).”

Small amount of ivory-colored powder, brain tissue, housed in corked Pyrex test tube. Tube has red and white paper label.

Lees, Marjorie Berman, 1923-

Pyrex

July 12, 1949

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Warren Anatomical Museum

object

1 Pyrex tube with preparation

Anatomical preparation, human

Vial

physical object

Warren Anatomical Museum Catalog Number: 20332

Warren Anatomical Museum Accession Number: 2009.004

The proteolipid was isolated by Marjorie Lees in 1949 at the McLean Hospital Research Laboratories. Dr. Lees was a Predoctoral Fellow of the National Institutes of Health of the United States Public Health Service. It remained in her personal collection until she donated the vial with her manuscript collection to the Archives for Women in Medicine in 2008. It was transferred to the Warren Museum in 2009.

Anatomical preparation, human

vial

11.7 H x 1.6 Dia cm