Ruth van Heyningen

Ruth Eleanor van Heyningen ( Treverton; – ) was a British biochemist, recognized for her research on the biochemistry of the lens and of cataracts.

Biography Ruth Eleanor Treverton was born in 1917 in Newport, Monmouthshire, Wales. She married William "Kits" van Heyningen (who was doing a PhD in the same department) that year. She and her family moved to London, where she took a job at the Lister Institute, researching blood group antigens.

Van Heyningen is credited with discovering novel pathways (such as the sorbitol pathway) involved in cataract formation, as well as pioneering novel techniques to identify relevant compounds and their interactions. For example, by examining the lenses of diabetic and non-diabetic patients (collected post-surgery or post-portem), she demonstrated that monosaccharide sugars accumulate in the lenses of diabetic patients, generating sugar alcohols that are harmful to the lens. She also conducted research on the role of tryptophan metabolism in the development of cataracts. In 1973, van Heyningen was awarded a DSc from Oxford. In 1976, the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology presented her with its Proctor Medal, citing her "important contributions to our understanding of the lens and cataract".

Van Heyningen was a founding fellow of St. Cross College at the University of Oxford. She remained active in her field of research even after her official retirement in the late 1960s, publishing 20 further articles until 1998. She died in 2019, two days before her 102nd birthday.