Marjorie Bick

Marjorie Elizabeth Dulcie Bick (11 December 1915 – 18 October 2013)[1] was an Australian biochemist.

Marjorie Bick
Marjorie Bick MSc, 1940s, portrayed by Julian Smith
Born(1915-12-11)11 December 1915
Sandringham, Australia
Died18 October 2013(2013-10-18) (aged 97)
Brighton, Australia
Other namesElizabeth Dulcie
EducationM.Sc.
Alma materUniversity of Melbourne
Known forblood pathology
Parent
  • Charles William Bick (father)
Scientific career
Fieldsbiochemist, environmental scientist

Born the daughter of Charles William Bick of Sandringham, Marjorie studied at Firbank Girl's Grammar School[2][3] from 1920 and matriculated in 1932 to undertake a Bachelor of Science degree at the University of Melbourne in 1937, then completed a Master of Science Degree at Melbourne in 1941.[4][5]

Biochemist

Bick began her career as a biochemist at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research,[6] which beside the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories, was then one of the few institutions offering women in Australia the opportunity of a scientific career.[7][8] She was amongst a number of notable biochemists, mostly women, like Beryl Splatt and Lorna Silvester who had a major influence on the nation's development of clinical biochemistry,[9] She worked in the field of blood transfusion specialising in the production of blood serum in the laboratory.[10]

In 1939 she was seconded to the Australian Red Cross Society (Victorian Division) Blood Transfusion Services.[11] In 1940 she drove from Melbourne with Sheila Summons, Nancy Hayward and Kathleen Gilles to attend the Science Congress in Canberra where she discussed problems in blood transfusion with the Adelaide committee.[12][13]

World War Two

Bick was invited to the USA and Canada with Dr Lucy Bryce to study developments in blood transfusion,[14][15]  and worked at Harvard University in the Plasma Fractionation Laboratory. Her research found a direct correlation between the platelet count of human blood, and its vasoconstrictor activity after clotting.[16] Returning to Australia, she became biochemist to the Australian Red Cross Society, overseeing Victoria's Red Cross Blood Bank during WW2,[17] during which she held the rank of captain in the Australian Army Medical Corps.

By 1944 she was Honorary Director of Training and Equipment at the Blood Bank in the Royal Melbourne Hospital and traveled again with Dr Bryce to study in America.[18][19] They arrived on the S.S. Kanangoora in March 1945[20] and visited the Hooper Research Foundation in Los Angeles then traveled to New Orleans and Washington,[21] and attended a conference of the Blood Substitutes Committee of the National Research Council.[22]

Bryce then traveled to investigate clinical methods while Bick stayed on in Boston for eighteen months undertaking laboratory work on plasma fractionation in the Department of Physical Chemistry at Harvard Medical School under Professor Edwin J. Cohn, a pioneer in the field.[23][24][25] She and Bryce reported on war conditions and attitudes to Australia in America[26] and on the mass production methods at the Cutter Laboratories of packing and shipping plasma and whole blood to be parachuted into the Pacific war zones.[22][27][28] Their research coincided with a plan to expand the Blood Bank into a new floor of the Royal Melbourne Hospital.[29]

Post-war career

In 1949, Bick concluded nine years of work for the Red Cross Blood Transfusion Service and joined the Alfred Hospital as a Senior Biochemist where she oversaw the management and implementation of new laboratory procedures at the Hospital.[30][31][32][33] Recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship in 1955, she studied new techniques in the USA at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, and in the United Kingdom at the Isotope School of the Atomic Energy Commission and at University College, London.[11]

Bick was a founding member and Victorian representative 1961–1963 of the Australasian Association of Clinical Biochemists (AACB) which was established 26 May 1961 during an ANZAAS Congress in Brisbane.[9]

Bick then pursued her interest in environmental science[34] and was awarded a Research Scholarship for research at the National Institute of Environmental Health in North Carolina 1967–1969, and then 1969–1971 worked as a biochemist at the Medical Research Council, Division of Clinical Chemistry, in the United Kingdom, publishing on the effect of human exposure to pesticides[35] and to hydrocarbons.[36] Her analysis by gas-liquid chromatography of biopsy specimens of human body fat collected in 1965 from 53 individuals found DDT-derived material and dieldrin present in all samples; a mean concentration of total DDT equivalent stored was 1.81 ppm, and the mean concentration of dieldrin was 0.046 ppm.[37] In other investigations she found that occupational exposure to esterase inhibitors used as pesticides in a group of orchardists, when spraying with reasonable care, is sufficient to cause a decrease in red-cell acetylcholinesterase activity.[38]

Bick returned to Australia in 1972 and worked in Pre-Clinical Drug Evaluation at the Department of Health in Canberra and during the 1970s and 80s contributed to Drug Toxicity Evaluation at the Therapeutic Goods Administration.

Personal life

In the 1950s Bick was a member and secretary of the first all-women sailing club, The Victorian Ladies' Yacht Club.[39][40][41][42] Retired in 1980, Bick ran a Victorian country Post Office and general store, later living in Canberra and then Brighton. She died on 18 October 2013.

Publications

References
  1. "Marjorie BICK Death Notice - Melbourne, Victoria | The Age". tributes.theage.com.au. Retrieved 23 July 2022.
  2. "All These 21st's". Argus. 16 October 1946. Retrieved 23 July 2022.
  3. "Victoria League Conference". Age. 18 September 1946. Retrieved 23 July 2022.
  4. "Firbank's Work Praised". Argus. 14 December 1935. Retrieved 23 July 2022.
  5. Bick, Marjorie E. D (1940). Thesis submitted for the degree of Master of Science (Thesis). OCLC 221583060.
  6. Bick, Marjorie (September 1939). "The Biochemical Changes Occurring During The Storage Of Human Blood". Australian Journal of Experimental Biology and Medical Science. 17 (3): 321–331. doi:10.1038/icb.1939.29.
  7. Hooker, Claire (2004). Irresistible forces: Australian women in science. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press. pp. 124, 127. ISBN 978-0-522-85107-6. OCLC 538124419.
  8. Hobbins, P.G; Winkel, K.D (2007). "The forgotten successes and sacrifices of Charles Kellaway, director of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, 1923-1944". Medical Journal of Australia. 187 (11/12): 645–651. doi:10.5694/j.1326-5377.2007.tb01457.x. ISSN 0025-729X. OCLC 225134152. PMID 18072902. S2CID 23444263.
  9. Dennis, Peter; Australasian Association of Clinical Biochemists (2005). Forty years on: a history of the Australasian Association of Clinical Biochemists (1961-2001). Mt. Lawley, W.A.?: Australasian Association of Clinical Biochemists. ISBN 978-0-9587812-9-9. OCLC 68208590.
  10. "THE LIFE OF MELBOURNE". Argus. 18 September 1940. Retrieved 23 July 2022.
  11. "Firbank Grammar 110 Women of Achievement by Firbank Grammar School - Issuu". issuu.com. 8 October 2019. Retrieved 24 July 2022.
  12. "Social News". Herald. 19 January 1939. Retrieved 23 July 2022.
  13. "Science Reception Today: Staying at Red Cross Home". The News. Vol. 47, no. 7, 192. South Australia. 21 August 1946. p. 7. Retrieved 23 July 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  14. "WOMEN'S NEWS". Daily Telegraph. 15 August 1944. Retrieved 23 July 2022.
  15. "Women's News: Speedy Blood Bank Methods In U.S." Daily Telegraph. 10 July 1945. p. 14. Retrieved 24 July 2022.
  16. Reid, G; Bick, Marjorie (1942). "Some Pharmacological Properties Of Serum With Special Reference To Its Use As A Blood Substitute". Medical Journal of Australia. 1 (9): 245–250. doi:10.5694/j.1326-5377.1942.tb95003.x. ISSN 0025-729X. OCLC 8259311928. S2CID 204058734.
  17. Bick, Marjorie (March 1945). "The "Blood Bank": The First Four Years' Practical Experience". Medical Journal of Australia. 1 (10): 241–249. doi:10.5694/j.1326-5377.1945.tb54626.x. ISSN 0025-729X. S2CID 204037264.
  18. "BLOOD BANK SUPPLIES". The Age. No. 28150. Victoria, Australia. 12 July 1945. p. 6. Retrieved 23 July 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  19. "BLOOD BANK MEETS ALL CIVILIAN NEEDS". Herald. 13 October 1944. Retrieved 23 July 2022.
  20. "VICTORIA". Guinea Gold. 2 March 1945. Retrieved 23 July 2022.
  21. "Blood Plasma Now Mass Produced In U.S.A." Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate. 4 May 1945. Retrieved 23 July 2022.
  22. "Woman's World". Herald. 30 April 1945. Retrieved 23 July 2022.
  23. "US WORK ON BLOOD PLASMA". The Argus (Melbourne). No. 31, 013. Victoria, Australia. 23 January 1946. p. 12. Retrieved 23 July 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  24. "Thirty-First Annual Report and Financial Statements 1944-45", Annual Report - Australian Red Cross Society, Melbourne: Australian Red Cross Society, ISSN 1035-1809, nla.obj-61759344, retrieved 23 July 2022 – via Trove
  25. "Australians To Study Blood Transfusions". Courier-Mail. 28 February 1945. Retrieved 23 July 2022.
  26. "WOMAN'S REALM". West Australian. 5 May 1945. Retrieved 23 July 2022.
  27. "SCIENTIST RETURNS". The Age. No. 28, 315. Victoria, Australia. 23 January 1946. p. 5. Retrieved 23 July 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  28. "New Methods Of Blood Transfusion". Morning Bulletin. 19 June 1945. p. 5. Retrieved 24 July 2022.
  29. "Blood BANK FOR STATE". Age. 6 April 1945. Retrieved 23 July 2022.
  30. Hudson, Bryan; Bick, Marjorie; Martin, F. I. R. (February 1960). "Observations On The Treatment Of Severe Diabetic Ketosis". Australasian Annals of Medicine. 9 (1): 34–40. doi:10.1111/imj.1960.9.1.34. PMID 14403739.
  31. "People and Parties". The Age. 24 March 1949. p. 7. Retrieved 23 July 2022.
  32. "The Life of Melbourne". Argus. 7 May 1949. p. 8. Retrieved 23 July 2022.
  33. "The Life of Melbourne". Argus. 26 March 1949. Retrieved 23 July 2022.
  34. Wassermann, M.; Tomatis, L.; Wassermann, Dora (1975), "Organochlorine Compounds In The General Population Of The Seventies And Some Of Their Biological Effects (In Man And Animals)", Pesticide Chemistry–3, Elsevier, pp. 189–208, doi:10.1016/b978-0-408-70708-4.50021-1, ISBN 9780408707084
  35. Bick, M. (June 1967). "The Effect On Blood Cholinesterase Activity Of Chronic Exposure To Pesticides". Medical Journal of Australia. 1 (25): 1066–1070. doi:10.5694/j.1326-5377.1967.tb21931.x. ISSN 0025-729X. PMID 6028338. S2CID 222058141.
  36. Bick, Marjorie (June 1967). "Chlorinated Hydrocarbon Residues In Human Body Fat". Medical Journal of Australia. 1 (22): 1127–1130. doi:10.5694/j.1326-5377.1967.tb21320.x. ISSN 0025-729X. PMID 6026015.
  37. "Insects and Insect-borne Diseases". Public Health Engineering Abstracts. Vol. XLVII, no. 9. U. S. Department Of Health, Education, And Welfare : Public Health Service. September 1967. p. 283.
  38. "Occupational Health". Public Health Engineering Abstracts. Vol. XLVII, no. 9. U. S. Department Of Health, Education, And Welfare : Public Health Service. September 1967. p. 293.
  39. "Fencing Team for Sydney". Age. 27 September 1950. Retrieved 24 July 2022.
  40. "Women's Sport". Age. 15 October 1952. p. 7. Retrieved 24 July 2022.
  41. Whitehead, Jacquie (1991), A history of the Victorian Ladies' Yacht Club, 1945-1983, Hampton Sailing Club, retrieved 24 July 2022
  42. Tyler, Janet E. (2001). A History of the Victorian Ladies' Yacht Club, 1945-1983. Cheltenham, Victoria.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
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