Nystatin

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                                               Elizabeth Lee Hazen & Rachel Fuller Brown

                                          Soil Samples From Virginia  =  Discovery Of Nystatin

In 1948 Hazen embarked on a long distance collaboration with Rachel Brown in the Albany lab, in an attempt to find a drug that would cure fungal illnesses.

 Hazen would identify promising cultures that might contain an organism that could fight fungal disease and mail them in mason jars to Brown in Albany., Brown would isolate the activate agent in the soil specimen and then mail it back to Hazen. 

In NYC it would be tested on to determine its efficacy and toxicity for humans.

 Finally after years of work, Hazen found sample in a cow pasture on a farm of a friend in Virginia. In 1950, from this sample Brown identified a substance that was effective – killing over 15 fungal variants, and was safe for humans. 

The same year they presented their finding to the National Academy of Sciences.

                                                          NY ( New York) To Nystatin

They first named the drug fungicidin, but found that the name was already in use, changed it to “Nystatin” in honor of New York State.  The drug was released for use in 1954, and was patented in 1957.

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Snapshot

 Elizabeth Hazen & Rachel Brown discovered Nystatin from Virginia soil.