Lucy Engel Graves Taliaferro

Lucy Graves Taliaferro and her husband, William Hay Taliaferro. Lucy Engel Graves Taliaferro (25 July 1895 – 22 December 1984) was an American parasitologist and professor, notable for her research in parasitology and immunology. She and her husband, William Hay Taliaferro, worked together as research partners from 1919 to 1973. She worked as a researcher in her husband's parasitology laboratory for over 30 years at the University of Chicago, where she co-taught a parasitology course with William and achieved the rank of Assistant Professor, although she was never paid. After retiring from the University of Chicago in 1960, the Talioferros researched the effects of ionizing radiation on the immune response at Argonne National Laboratory and coauthored Radiation and Immune Mechanisms (1964).

Biography Lucy Engel Graves was born on July 25, 1895, in Cleveland, Ohio, to her parents, Clara Walter and Herbert Cornelius Graves. William died on December 21, 1973. Lucy died on December 22, 1984. The Taliaferros are buried together in Virginia, where William was born and raised. thumb Dr. Lucy Graves Taliaferro discusses her and husband's life and work together in an interview with Monroe M. Vincent for the Center of Disease Control (1980).

Work Lucy Taliaferro worked as a researcher in the field of parasitology throughout her life alongside her husband William Hay Taliaferro. She specialized in tropical parasitology, specifically trypanosomes, a group of unicellular parasitic protozoa found in tropical regions that include Trypanosoma brucei, which causes sleeping sickness. At the University of Chicago, she studied host-parasite reactions, the mechanisms of antibody and hemolysin formation, and, during World War II, the malaria-causing plasmodium parasite and the antimalarial properties of quinine, which is now the most common treatment of malaria. After retiring from the University of Chicago, she moved to study the effects of ionizing radiation on the immune response at the Argonne National Laboratory and published Radiation and Immune Mechanisms with William Hay Taliaferro in 1964. Lucy and William Taliaferro worked as a research team throughout their careers and published over one hundred papers together. While William has received numerous honors and awards for the work they did together, Lucy was little recognized besides co-authorship. Despite her research and rank of Assistant Professor, the University of Chicago never paid Lucy.

After receiving her Sc.D. from Johns Hopkins University, the Taliaferros began work at the University of Chicago, where they stayed for over thirty years. Their early work included research into Trypanosoma lewisi, a parasite of the rat, which the Taliaferros found to initiate formation of not only antibodies that had lytic properties, but also antibodies that were also capable of inhibiting the reproduction of the parasite. William termed these reproduction-inhibiting antibodies ablastins. The Taliaferros studied other trypanosomes, including Trypanosoma muscili, in a variety of organisms and found that only the mouse developed ablastins against T. muscili. Although Lucy and William Taliaferro were a research team, only William received broad recognition for this research. For their early work on trypanosomes, William received numerous recognitions and he was included in a group of University of Chicago scientists who met monthly for dinner meetings while their wives, including Lucy, dined separately.

The Taliaferros' work distinguishing killing and reproduction-inhibiting antibodies produced during trypanosome infections led them to continue investigating host immunity to parasites by studying malarial parasites. Although they were unable to find ablastins in their blood samples from infected animals, their work on malarias allowed them to better understand innate and adaptive immunity by following macrophage and lymphocyte activity throughout the bodies of the infected animals over the course of the infection.

During their time at the University of Chicago, the Taliaferros took ten three-month trips to Central and South America. They traveled three times to Panama to study malaria and on other trips they worked on a precipitin test for malaria and tests for other tropical parasites. They also brought home various parasite-infected animals for continued study.

During World War II, the Taliaferros worked with a group seeking to identify antimalarial drugs and performed a comprehensive study of the mechanism of quinine. Their research on malaria led to their publication of a review of the role of the lymphoid macrophage system in 1949 and another review on the effects of X-rays on the immune response, that was originally a classified document written for the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission but was published publicly in 1951. The U.S. Atomic Energy Commission partly subsidized all of the Taliaferros' future work.

Following the war, the Taliaferros switched their focus from parasites to antibody formation and lysis. They studied the hemolysin response in rabbits, including the effects of whole or partial X-ray radiation of the rabbit on the hemolysin response. While their findings of initial suppression of the response following irradiation had been previously well-documented, their discovery of later recovery and even enhancement of the hemolysin response had been unknown. They also identified production of antibodies with identical antigen-specificity but different properties, a result which preceded the classification of antibodies into five classes, or isotypes, and various subclasses.

In addition to her research, Lucy co-taught a parasitology course with William and Frances Coventry, a former classmate from Goucher, and achieved the rank of Assistant Professor.

Lucy and William Taliaferro retired from the University of Chicago in 1960 and moved to Lemont, Illinois to continue working at Argonne National Laboratory. Here, they continued their research on the effects of ionizing radiation on the immune response, and in 1964, the Taliaferros co-authored Radiation and Immune Mechanisms. They retired from the Argonne National Laboratory in 1969, although they continued to publish papers.