Helen Murray Free

Helen Murray Free (born February 20, 1923, Pittsburgh, PA) is a retired American chemist and educator.She received a B.S. with honors in Chemistry from The College of Wooster in 1944 and an M.A. in management from Central Michigan University in 1978.In 1947 she married Alfred Free, a fellow researcher in urinalysis.She is most known for revolutionizing many self-testing systems for diabetes and other diseases while working at Miles Laboratories, which is now Ascensia Diabetes Care. The pioneering of the dip-and-read strips, which are still used to this day, allowed for testing to be more convenient and efficient, enabling doctors and patients to no longer be reliant on laboratories for results.

Early life

Helen Murray was born on February 20, 1923.She was the daughter of James S. Murray, a coal company salesman, and Daisy Piper Murray, who died during an influenza epidemic when Helen was six.

Education

Helen received her early education from the public schools in Youngstown, Ohio, and graduated in 1941 as the valedictorian of Poland Seminary High School.While attending a summer camp at the College of Wooster, Helen set her heart on attending Wooster.Greatly influenced by her high school English teacher, she originally intended to major in English and Latin in hopes of becoming a teacher; however, these plans soon changed. In December 1941 when Pearl Harbor was bombed, many young men either enlisted or were drafted into the army.As a result of the vacancy within "male-dominated disciplines", women were encouraged to pursue careers in science, so Helen switched her major to chemistry in which she received her B.S. in 1944.She has said that her switch to chemistry was the “most terrific thing” that ever happened to her.

Career

Helen's career search began even before completing her college education. During her final year at Wooster, she took interest in the Koppers Chemical Company in Orrville, Ohio. However, she was put down after hearing that her job would be testing the creosote that fence posts were dipped in before they were sold to local farms. She then turned to apply for a research fellowship at the Mellon Institute (which is now Carnegie Mellon University). While waiting to hear back, one of her chemistry professors arranged an interview for her at Miles Laboratories. She was offered a position, however, after hearing about what her job would entail, she was no longer interested and was set on doing research. With no response from the Mellon Institute, Miles reluctantly took the offer from Miles.Upon graduating from Wooster, Helen immediately began working as a quality control chemist for Miles Laboratories (known as the creators of Alka-Seltzer), which involved testing the quality of ingredients in the company's line of vitamins An offer from the Mellon Institute eventually came after a few weeks she accepted the offer from Miles, but she was unfortunately locked into her position by then. Her aspiration to do research, however, was ultimately fulfilled. When Alfred Free had a position open in his biochemistry research group, she interviewed and filled the position. Little did she know that they would become lifelong research partnersThey would marry two years later in 1947 and have six children.

Originally they researched different antibiotics before they moved on to dry reagent systems.The first thing Alfred and his team were tasked with was further refiningClinitest to make it more sensitive.Clinitest was a tablet that measured glucose levels in the urine of diabetic patients when a diluted solution of urine was subject to a tablet. A resulting color change would be able to determine the corresponding glucose levels of the patient. The team also developed the Acetest, another tablet test for diabetes. Continuing with this trend of enabling clinical tests to be carried out in tablet form, the team created Ictotest, which tested for Hepatitis A. This test was able to chemically detect the presence of bilirubin in urine, which was indicative of carrying the disease.

It was from developing the Ictotest that got the Frees thinking. Free worked with her husband to make the tests even more convenient than tablets by creating strips. The duo introduced Clinistix (the famous “dip-and-read” test) in 1956.It was the first dip-and-read diagnostic test strip for monitoring glucose in urine. They then worked to develop other strips that could test for key indicators of diseases, such as proteins and ketones. Eventually, they were able to create Multistix, which enabled for a urine analysis that combined multiple tests into one strip.They did this by making an impermeable barrier between the multiple reagents on the strip. Several other testing strips were developed and added to the market, including Uristix, Ketostix, Dextrostox, Labstix, and the still-current product, Multistix.These products are still used today.

In 1969, Free moved into the Growth and Development Department, and she eventually became the director of Specialty Test Systems in 1976. She was Director of Marketing Services for the Research Products Division when Bayer Diagnostics acquired Miles in 1978.

She also earned an MA in Management (Health Care Administration) from Central Michigan University (1978), and is an Adjunct Professor of Management at Indiana University South Bend.

By 1975, Free had earned seven patents for her improvements in medical and clinical urinalysis testing. In that year, she and her husband co-authored their second book, Urinalysis in Laboratory Practice, which is still a standard work in the field.

She retired in 1982, but continues to work as a consultant for Bayer Diagnostics in Elkhart, Indiana.

Later years

After her retirement, she became an active promoter of science education.She has devoted special attention to educating both female and underprivileged students, through programs such as "Kids & Chemistry" and "Expanding Your Horizons."

Awards and honors

In 1980, Helen Free received the Garvan–Olin Medal, given to women for distinguished service in the field of chemistry.In 1996, she received the Kilby Award for lifetime achievement.

She served as president of the American Association for Clinical Chemistry in 1990 and in 2006 received its prestigious award for Outstanding Contributions to Clinical Chemistry.

In 1993 she was elected president of the American Chemical Society. As president, Free considered her top priority to be to raise public awareness of the positive role chemistry has played in our lives. The ACS named an award in her honor, the Helen M. Free Award in Public Outreach.

In 2000 she was inducted into the National Inventor's Hall of Fame.

In 2010 she was awarded the National Medal of Technology and Innovation by President Barack Obama.

The work of Helen and Al Free in developing diagnostic test trips was designated a National Historic Chemical Landmark by the American Chemical Society on May 1, 2010, at the ETHOS Science Center in Elkhart, Indiana.

In 2011, Helen Free was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.

• Free et al., U.S. Patent 3,087,794, " CHEMICAL TEST FOR DIFFERENTIATING LEUCOCYTES FROM ERYTHROCYTES"
• Free, U.S. Patent 2,912,309, “INDICATOR FOR DETECTING GLUCOSE”