Frances Oldham Kelsey - Birth and Education

Birth and Education

Born Frances Kathleen Oldham in Cobble Hill on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Kelsey graduated from high school at age 15, and attended Victoria College, British Columbia (1930–1931) in Victoria, British Columbia (now University of Victoria). She then enrolled at McGill University to study pharmacology. At McGill she received both a B.Sc.(1934) and a M.Sc.(1935) in pharmacology, and "on professor's urging, wrote to EMK Geiling, M.D., a noted researcher was starting up a new pharmacology department at the University of Chicago," asking for a position doing graduate work. Geiling assumed that Frances was a man and offered her the position. Frances accepted and began working for Geiling in 1936. During her second year, Geiling was retained by the FDA to research unusual deaths related to Elixir Sulfanilamide, a sulfonamide medicine. Kelsey assisted on this research project, which showed that the 107 deaths were caused by the use of diethylene glycol as a solvent. The next year, the United States Congress passed the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1938. That same year Kelsey successfully completed her studies and received a Ph.D. in pharmacology at the University of Chicago in 1938. Kelsey's work for Geiling is credited with her interest in teratogens – that is, drugs that cause congenital malformations.