June Almeida viewed into her electron microscope in 1964 to observe a round, grey dot with tiny spokes. Almeida and her colleagues noted that the pegs formed a halo around the virus just like the sun’s corona.
What she saw then is now known as the coronavirus and June Almeida played a pioneering role in identifying it. It is a remarkable feat since the 34-year-old scientist never completed her formal education.
Born as June Hart, she was a bright student with ambition to attend university, but lacked the money to do so. At 16, she dropped out of school and began serving as a lab technician at Glasgow Royal Infirmary, where she used microscopes to analyze tissue samples. She moved to St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London and married Venezuelan artists Enriques Almeida.
They immigrated to Canada and June began working with electron microscopes at the Ontario Cancer Institute in Toronto. Her journey further can be seen as a life of considerable contribution to virology.
There she devised new techniques and published several papers describing the structures of viruses not seen previously. Almeida came up with the microscopy technique, which is simple and revolutionary for the field of virology.
While working with microscopic particles, it’s a challenge to know exactly what to look for. But an electron microscope blasts a specimen with a beam of electrons. Then it records the particles’ interactions with the specimen’s surface. Electrons have shorter wavelength than light, it shows scientists an image with finer and smaller details. The real challenge is to be able to discern if a tiny blob is a virus, a cell or something else.
As a solution to this problem, Almeida realized she could utilize antibodies from previously infected individuals to pinpoint the virus.
Antibodies are drawn to their antigen-counterparts. Thus, when Almeida put in tiny particles coated in antibodies, they would collect around the virus, alerting her about it’s presence.
This unique technique helped clinicians to use electron microscopy as a method to diagnose viral infections in patients. Almeida identified many viruses including rubella that causes complications during pregnancy. Scientists have been probing about this virus but, Almeida happens to be the first to see it.
Discovering the coronavirus:
As Almeida gained recognition, she returned to London for a position at St. Thomas's Hospital Medical School. In 1964, she was contacted by Dr. David Tyrrell, who scrutinized research at the Common Cold Unit in Salisbury, Wiltshire.
His team had collected samples of a flu-like virus from a sick schoolboy in Surrey, which they labeled “B814” but had problems cultivating it in the lab. When the traditional method didn’t see success, researchers began to suspect that ‘B814’ could be a new virus.
So, Tyrell sent Almeida these samples, with the hope of her using microscope technique to identify the virus. Almeida with limited materials to work with found and created clear images of the virus.
She had seen two similar viruses earlier in her research:
• One while looking at bronchitis in chickens.
• Second while studying hepatitis liver inflammation in mice.
Ironically, a paper written on both by her had been rejected. As Almeida along with Tyrrell and his team discussed their findings, they named it ‘corona’ a Latin word for crown, inspired by the virus’s halo-like structure. Thus, the coronavirus was born.
Before her death in 2007 at the age of 77, she helped publish first high-quality images of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
Her contribution to the field of virology is priceless but, she was largely forgotten. Though with the outbreak of the coronavirus she has shone to light again.
56 years hence Almeida discovered the coronavirus today, her work is more relevant than ever.