Shorb, Mary S., 1907-

Research scientist and professor at the University of Maryland.

Primarily known for her pioneering work with vitamin B12.

From the description of Papers of Mary S. Shorb, 1910-1971 (bulk 1945-1965) (University of Maryland Libraries). WorldCat record id: 19534492

Mary S. Shorb was born on January 11, 1907, in Wahpeton, North Dakota, and was raised in Caldwell, Idaho. She received her B.S. from the College of Idaho in 1928. Before joining the faculty at the University of Maryland in College Park, Dr. Shorb was associated with the Johns Hopkins University (1929-1932) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) (1942-1946). While at Hopkins, she was a technical research assistant on studies of the common cold (1929-1932) and an immunology technical assistant in the School of Hygiene and Public Health (1931-1932). Shorb received her doctorate in immunology from Hopkins in 1933. From 1942 to 1944, she was a bacteriologist for the Bureau of Human Nutrition of USDA, followed by a two-year stint at USDA's Bureau of Dairy Industries. During the years 1947 to 1949, she was the Merck Post-Doctorate Fellow in Poultry Husbandry Nutrition at Maryland.

Shorb was a research professor at the University of Maryland from 1949 to 1972. In addition, during her time at the university, she worked part-time for the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, and lectured on nutrition and bacteriology at Oxford University and the University of Paris. Her community activities included membership in the first High Point High School PTA, the Beltsville Garden Club, and the Prince George's County Mental Health Society. In 1972, she was named research professor emeritus in the Poultry Husbandry Department at the University of Maryland.

Mary Shorb's reputation rests on her studies of vitamin B12. She and her colleagues discovered that the vitamin was more effective in treating pernicious anemia than the liver extract in use since 1926; prior to 1926, patients afflicted with the disease usually died. Working with a team of researchers from the Merck Laboratories to isolate the basic factor in the liver extract which helped anemia victims, she determined that the vitamin, named B12, was the beneficial element in the extract. This discovery brought relief to patients who were previously forced to take frequent, costly injections of the liver extract. Her discovery elicited letters of thanks from people all over the world who either suffered from pernicious anemia or had a family member with the disease.

A member of the American Society of Microbiologists, the Society of Microbiology, and the Protozoology Society, as well as a fellow of the New York Academy of Science, Shorb received many awards. These included the Hematology Research Foundation Award in 1948; the Mead Johnson Award in 1949; and Hood College's Outstanding Woman of Maryland award in 1951. In 1972, Merck, Sharp & Dohme Research Laboratories commemorated its twenty-three-year research relationship with her by establishing an endowed lectureship in her name at the University of Maryland in College Park. During the 1980s, she was honored by the American Association of University Women. Shorb's portrait was included in a 1992 calendar produced by Westinghouse Electronic Systems.

Dr. Shorb was married to D. A. Shorb and was the mother of three children. She died in 1990.

From the guide to the Mary S. Shorb papers, 1910-1971, 1945-1965, (University of Maryland)