Frieda Robscheit-Robbins

Biographical Timeline

• Born on June 8, 1888 in Euskirchen, Germany
• 1900 – Emigrated to the United States with her parents
• 1915 – Married Hans Theodor Robscheit, a Prussian-born production manager, in California. She adopted the name Frieda Mathilde Robscheit.
• 1917 – Began work as assistant to George Hoyt Whipple at the Hooper Foundation for medical research, University of California
• 1920 – First publication as Frieda Saur Robscheit comparing various methods of hemoglobin determination, printed in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.
• 1921 – Whipple nominated her, as a qualified investigator, for membership in the Society of Experimental Biology and Medicine.
• 1922 – Surname of Robscheit, Americanized to Robbins. Due to her prior publication and on Whipple’s advice, to avoid confusion she called herself, professionally, Robscheit-Robbins. rejoined Whipple’s staff ·at the new school of medicine of the University of Rochester, with the rank of associate in pathology
• 1934 – PhD, University of Rochester on The reserve storage of red cells and hemoglobin and their parent substances during growth in dogs as influenced by diet factors
• 1951 – Married Oscar V. Sprague (1892-1968)
• 1955 – Retired from the University of Rochester after nearly four decades of research.
• Died on December 18, 1973 in Tucson, Arizona at the age of 85, not 80 as some obituaries erroneously stated.

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Medical Eponyms

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Key Medical Contributions

Name variations

• Friedericke Mathilde Saur
• Frieda M. Robscheit
• Frieda S. Robscheit-Robbins
• Frieda S. Robbins
• Frieda Sprague (1951-1973)

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Major Publications

• Robscheit FS. A comparative study of hemoglobin determination by various methods. 1920; 41: 209-226
• Whipple GH. Hooper CW, Robscheit FS. Blood Regeneration Following Simple Anemia. I. Mixed Diet Reaction. American Journal of Physiology 1920; 52: 151-166
• Hooper CW, Robscheit FS, Whipple GH. Blood Regeneration Following Simple Anemia. V. The Influence of Blaud’s Pills and Hemoglobin, American Journal of Physiology 1920; 53: 263-282.
• Whipple GH, Robscheit-Robbins FS. Blood regeneration in severe anemia. I. Standard basal ration bread and experimental methods. Amer J Physiol. 1925;72(3):395-407
• Whipple GH, Robscheit-Robbins FS. Blood regeneration in severe anemia. II. Favorable influence of liver, heart and skeletal muscle in diet. Amer J Physiol. 1925;72(3):408-418
• Whipple GH, Robscheit-Robbins FS. Blood regeneration in severe anemia. IV. Green vegetable feeding. Amer J Physiol. 1925;72(3):431-435
• Robscheit-Robbins FS. The Regeneration of Hemoglobin and Erythrocytes, Physiological Reviews 1929; 9(4): 666-709
• Robscheit-Robbins FS, Whipple GH. Blood regeneration in severe anemia: XIV. a liver fraction potent in pernicious anemia fed alone and combined with whole liver, liver ash and fresh bile. J Exp Med. 1929 Jan 31;49(2):215-27.
• Rioch J, Robscheit-Robbins FS. The response of reticulocytes to potent diets in severe experimental anemia due to hemorrhage, American Journal of the Medical Sciences 1932; 184(3): 304-313
• Oehlbeck LW, Robscheit-Robbins FS, Whipple GH. Marrow hyperplasia and hemoglobin reserve in experimental anemia due to bleeding. J Exp Med. 1932 Aug 31;56(3):425-48.
• Robscheit-Robbins FS. Diet and its effect upon blood formation, Journal of the American Dietetic Association 1933; 9(5): 387-395
• Whipple GH, Robscheit-Robbins FS. Hemoglobin production factors in the human liver: I. normal, infection and intoxication. J Exp Med. 1933 Mar 31;57(4):637-51
• Robscheit-Robbins FS, Whipple GH. Hemoglobin production factors in the human liver: II. Liver degeneration, cancer, cirrhosis and hepatic insufficiency. J Exp Med. 1933 Mar 31;57(4):653-70.
• Whipple GH, Robscheit-Robbins FS. Hemoglobin production factors in the human liver: III. Anemias-primary, aplastic and secondary-leukemias. J Exp Med. 1933 Mar 31;57(4):671-87.
• Robscheit-Robbins FS. The reserve storage of red cells and hemoglobin and their parent substances during growth in dogs as influenced by diet factors Doctoral Dissertation, University of Rochester Medical Center 1934
• Robscheit-Robbins FS, Whipple GH. Infection and intoxication : their influence upon hemoglobin production in experimental anemia. J Exp Med. 1936 Apr 30;63(5):767-87.

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References

Biography

• The Sacramento Bee. Sacramento, California. Thu, 29 Jul 1915
• Corner GW. George Hoyt Whipple and His Friends: The Life-Story of a Nobel Prize Pathologist. 1963
• Long ER. History of the American Society for Experimental Pathology: a record of its annual meetings with brief biographical sketches of its officers. 1973
• Davenport HW. George H. Whipple or how to be a great man without knowing differential equations. Physiologist. 1981 Apr-May;24(2):1-5.
• Rossiter MW. The Matthew Matilda Effect in Science. Social Studies of Science. 1993; 23(2): 325–341.
• McGrayne SB. Frieda Robscheit-Robbins In: Nobel Prize Women in Science: Their Lives, Struggles, and Momentous Discoveries. 2001
• Svitil KA. The 50 Most Important Women in Science. Discover, 2002
• Benavente R. Frieda Robscheit-Robbins, hígados a los perros para curar la anemia y el Nobel que no fue. Mujeres con ciencia, Vidas científicas, 6 julio 2023
• Frieda S. Robscheit-Robbins. History of the Campuses and Buildings of the University of Rochester
• Frieda ROBSCHEIT. History of Scientific Women