Judith Vaitukaitis

Judith L. Vaitukaitis (August 29, 1940 – October 19, 2018) was a reproductive neuroendocrinologist and clinical researcher who played a key role in developing a biochemical assay in the early 1970s that ultimately led to the creation of the home pregnancy test. She served for 12 years as director of the US National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) at the US National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Education and early development of home pregnancy test

Vaitukaitis was born in Hartford, Connecticut, and received a B.S. degree in chemistry and biology from Tufts University in 1962. a reproductive hormone that's also secreted by certain malignant tumors. She worked first at NIH's National Cancer Institute and then continued her postdoctoral training in the reproduction research branch of NIH's Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), first as a special research fellow of the U.S. Public Health Service and then as a senior staff fellow.

During that time, Vaitukaitis worked with another NIH postdoc, Glenn Braunstein, to find accurate techniques to detect elevated levels of hCG (human chorionic gonadotropin) in the body, as a method for diagnosing cancer. Because hCG is normally secreted during pregnancy as well, the researchers recognized that a sensitive hCG assay might also be able to detect pregnancy at an early stage. In 1972, Vaitukaitis, Braunstein, and their mentor Griff Ross published a landmark paper that described a new assay for detecting hCG. Their method, far more sensitive than existing hCG tests, became the basis for the first home pregnancy tests, which hit the market in 1978.

After advancing to become one of the first female senior investigators at NICHD, Vaitukaitis left NIH in 1974 and returned to Boston University School of Medicine.

Clinical research and leadership roles

At Boston University, Vaitukaitis served as professor of medicine, and at Boston City Hospital, she headed the section on endocrinology and metabolism. Her clinical studies were conducted in the NIH-funded General Clinical Research Center (GCRC) at Boston University; she served as co-director of that GCRC from 1975 to 1977, and director from 1977 to 1986. Under her leadership, NCRR's budget nearly quadrupled, and programs expanded to include a broad range of research resources, technologies, and biological models of human disease. and broadened the range of services and technologies provided by the GCRCs. She retired shortly thereafter.

Honors and awards

Distinguished Alumna Award, Boston University (1983). Elected to the Institute of Medicine (1996).