Sheila Sherlock facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Professor Dame
Sheila Sherlock
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Sheila Sherlock
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| Born |
Sheila Patricia Violet Sherlock
31 March 1918 Dublin, Ireland
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| Died | 30 December 2001 (aged 83) London, England
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| Nationality | British |
| Alma mater | University of Edinburgh |
| Known for | Hepatology |
| Spouse(s) |
D. Geraint James
(m. 1951) |
| Children | 2 |
| Awards | DBE (1978) FRCP (1951) FRCP Ed FRS (2001) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Medicine |
| Institutions | Royal Free Hospital |
| Thesis | The liver in disease: with special reference to aspiration liver biopsy |
Dame Sheila Patricia Violet Sherlock (born March 31, 1918 – died December 30, 2001) was a famous British doctor and teacher. She is known as the most important person in the 20th century for studying the liver. This field of study is called hepatology.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Sheila Sherlock was born in Dublin, Ireland, on March 31, 1918. She was the only daughter of Samuel Philip Sherlock, an army officer, and Violet Mary Catherine.
Her family moved to London soon after she was born. She went to private schools there. In 1929, her family moved to Sandgate, Kent, where she attended the Folkestone County School for Girls.
In the 1930s, it was hard for women to get into medical schools. From 1935 to 1936, Sheila tried to get into several English medical schools but was not accepted. Finally, in 1936, she was accepted to study medicine at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. She was a very bright student and graduated in 1941 as the top student in her year. She was only the second woman to win the Ettles Scholarship, a special award for excellent students.
Sheila Sherlock's Career
After graduating, Sheila stayed in Edinburgh. She became an Assistant Lecturer in Surgery in 1942. She published her first research paper that same year. She learned how to do and write about research from her professor, Sir James Learmonth.
Later in 1942, she moved to London. She became a House Physician at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, Hammersmith Hospital. Here, she started her important work on hepatitis, a liver disease.
From 1943 to 1947, she continued her research with funding from the Medical Research Council. She earned her Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree for her work on how to study the liver using a special method called a liver biopsy. She received a Gold Medal for her excellent thesis.
She also researched other liver problems like portal hypertension (high blood pressure in the liver), hepatic encephalopathy (brain problems from liver disease), and ascites (fluid buildup in the belly). In 1947, she spent a year at Yale University in the USA, studying how the liver processes food.
When she returned to London in 1948, she became a Lecturer in Medicine and a Consultant Physician at Hammersmith Hospital. In 1951, at just 33 years old, she became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. This made her the youngest woman at that time to receive this important medical qualification.
Becoming a Professor
In 1959, Sheila Sherlock made history. She became the first female Professor of Medicine in the United Kingdom. This happened at the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine in London.
She started a special liver unit there. It was in a temporary building on the hospital's roof! Even so, doctors from all over the world came to learn from her. Many of them became leaders in liver medicine themselves.
Her team researched many liver diseases, including:
- How the body processes bilirubin (a substance that can cause jaundice).
- Haemochromatosis (too much iron in the body).
- Cholestasis (blocked bile flow).
- Drug-induced liver disease (liver damage from medicines).
- Albumin synthesis (how the liver makes a protein called albumin).
- Autoimmune hepatitis (when the body's immune system attacks the liver).
- Using liver biopsy to diagnose liver diseases.
In 1974, the liver department moved to a new, modern hospital building. Here, they started studying viral hepatitis, liver transplantation (replacing a diseased liver), and using endoscopic methods to treat varices (swollen veins) in the esophagus.
Sheila Sherlock retired as Professor in 1983, but she kept seeing patients, doing research, and writing books.
Important Roles and Groups
Sheila Sherlock was involved in many important medical groups:
- She helped start the International Association for the Study of the Liver.
- She was the first woman Vice President of the Royal College of Physicians.
- She was President of the British Society of Gastroenterology.
- She helped create the British Liver Trust, which supports people with liver disease.
- She also helped start the American Association for the Study of Liver Disease.
Her Publications
Sheila Sherlock was known for writing clearly and to the point. She published over 600 articles in science journals. Her most famous book is Diseases of the Liver and Biliary System. She wrote it herself until the 9th edition in 1993. This book is still used today and is now in its 13th edition. She also edited two important medical journals, Gut and the Journal of Hepatology.
Awards and Honours
Sheila Sherlock received many awards and honours for her groundbreaking work:
- She was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 1978. This is a very high honour in the UK.
- She became an Honorary Member of many medical societies around the world.
- In 2001, she was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS), which is a huge honour for scientists.
- She received many honorary degrees from universities around the world, including Yale University, University of Edinburgh, and University of Cambridge.
Personal Life
On December 15, 1951, Sheila Sherlock married Dr. Geraint "Gerry" James, who was also a doctor and researcher. They had two daughters, Amanda and Auriole, and two granddaughters.
Even though she was married, Sheila preferred to be known by her maiden name, Sherlock. She was one of the first professional women to do this.
Sheila Sherlock passed away in London on December 30, 2001, from a lung condition called pulmonary fibrosis. This was just two weeks after her 50th wedding anniversary.
Her Legacy
When Sheila Sherlock started her medical career, doctors knew very little about liver diseases. Her hard work helped make hepatology a recognized medical specialty.
She was a pioneer in using a special method called needle liver biopsy. This technique helps doctors understand liver diseases better and is still used today to diagnose them. The liver unit she created at the Royal Free Hospital became a world-famous center for liver research and for training new liver doctors.
In 1966, she helped develop a standard test for a liver disease called Primary biliary cirrhosis. She later showed that this disease was an autoimmune disease, meaning the body's own immune system attacks the liver. She also proved that certain medicines called corticosteroids could help treat autoimmune hepatitis. She also discovered the link between hepatitis B and a type of liver cancer called hepatocellular carcinoma.
After her death, her husband, Dr. Geraint James, set up the Sheila Sherlock Prizes in 2006. These prizes are given to the best medical students at the UCL Medical School.
In March 2008, on what would have been her 90th birthday, the liver unit she founded at the Royal Free Hospital was renamed the Sheila Sherlock Liver Centre in her memory.
Professor Priscilla Kincaid-Smith, a kidney doctor, once said about Sheila: "She was a superb clinician; we all used to go to Sheila's round. She'd be as rude as anything to you on the round – really pick you out and say, 'That's absolute rubbish,' and walk on to the next patient. But she was tremendous, a really wonderful clinician."
