Mildred Rebstock, American Chemist

Mildred Catherine Rebstock (November 29, 1919 - February 17, 2011) was an American pharmaceutical chemist. Rebstock was hired at Parke-Davis Research Labs from 1945-77 as a junior research chemist and was later promoted to a research leader in 1959. Rebstock was tasked with synthesizing a new antibiotic found by John Ehrlich in a culture of Streptomyces venezuela and had found a way to fully synthesize this antibiotic in 1947. This was a rare case where the synthetization of a molecule was more cost effective than fermenting it through organic processes. Because of the availability of chloromycetin after RebstockE??s work, it was abundantly used to treat Rocky Mountain fever and Typhoid fever, and is still used today as a secondary course of action for extreme cases of meningitis, cholera, and other infectious bacterial diseases. Although it has fallen out of favor in developed nations it is still a vital antibiotic used abundantly in developing nations. Because of this it is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines, which is a list of the most necessary medicines needed in a health system. She continued her pharmaceutical research for the remainder of her career and spent the latter part of it researching fertility drugs and the synthesis of blood-lipid agents. Rebstock never married and died in 2011 at the age of 91. No photographer credited, undated

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