Science and sacrifice: the pioneering journey of Dora Lush

In 1943, Australian scientist Miss Dora Lush's life was tragically cut short in her relentless pursuit of scientific knowledge. This article commemorates the 100‐year anniversary of the journal, ICB, by celebrating the remarkable career of Lush, a renowned bacteriologist who achieved unparalleled success in an era when women faced formidable barriers to tertiary education and scientific recognition. Graduating with a Master of Science from the University of Melbourne in 1934, Lush's ground‐breaking research in infectious diseases, conducted in collaboration with Frank Macfarlane Burnet AO at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute (WEHI), played a pivotal role in advancing our understanding of viruses, including influenza, herpes and myxomatosis. Lush's pivotal work on influenza provided the foundational evidence to develop the influenza vaccine, a cornerstone of global public health today. Similarly, her investigation of myxoma virus in rabbits, with its potential for pest control and ecological impact, was used to instruct creation of the world's first biological control program against a mammalian pest. Tragically, Dora Lush succumbed to scrub fever in 1943, a disease she contracted during a laboratory accident. Her unwavering commitment to science led her to offer her own blood for research as she battled the infection, exemplifying her dedication to advancing knowledge even in the face of personal adversity. Lush's legacy endures through scholarships and fellowships that bear her name in Australia, fostering the careers of aspiring scientists. Her ground‐breaking research and unwavering determination continue to inspire generations, reminding us of the importance of diversity in science and the enduring impact of pioneering women like Lush.

Immunology & Cell Biology 2023; 101: 911-915; doi: 10.1111/imcb.12697 Australian scientist Miss Dora Lush was an accomplished bacteriologist, who stoically lost her life in the pursuit of her science in 1943.Up until the early 1900s, women were largely prevented from pursuing a tertiary education.Indeed, the Royal Society, the UK's most prestigious scientific establishment, did not permit membership for women by statute until 1945, yet Lush graduated with a Master of Science from the University of Melbourne in 1934 (Figure 1), the highest degree available in Australia at the time.a In this article celebrating the 100-year anniversary of ICB, we acknowledge Lush's remarkable career in science in Australia and internationally, achieved in an era of a heavily male-dominated scientific community, and discuss the legacy she leaves behind as a trailblazer for future women scientists.
In the first part of the 20th century, girls wanting to complete secondary education in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne had to go to a private school, there being no State ones that taught to that level.The school in which Dora undertook her secondary education considered itself "progressive," teaching physics at a time when very few girls' schools did.
With her aunts on both sides of the family serving as superlative role models for women to forge careers in male-dominated disciplines of the humanities and business, Lush's independent mind carved out her own territory in science, where she established herself as an accomplished bacteriologist at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute (WEHI) medical research institute under the guidance of Nobel Laureate Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet OM AK KBE FRS FAA FRSNZ.
Lush tragically died just 2 months shy of her 33rd birthday from scrub fever, contracted after a laboratory accident while working at the WEHI.Scrub fever was endemic in New Guinea during World War II, where sickness casualties outnumbered weapons-inflicted casualties 5:1 among Australian troops.By the 1960s, with the discovery of doxycycline, fatalities to scrub fever infection significantly reduced.Yet in 1943 while inoculating a mouse, the syringe Lush was using slipped and the needle entered her finger, causing an accidental infection that led to her tragic death 3 weeks later.At Lush's insistence, regular specimens of her blood were taken during the progression of her infection to further research by her colleagues to find a specific cure or method of prevention (Figure 2)."It is difficult to express how grievous is her loss to the institute [WEHI].She was the most outstandingly competent bacteriologist with whom I have ever worked"-Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet AO 1 (Figure 3).
Lush was appointed as a research fellow, working as a close collaborator of the then assistant director, Burnet, of the WEHI researching infectious diseases including influenza, herpes infections and myxomatosis.When leaving for London in 1939 shortly after the outbreak of World War II, Lush had already authored nine journal articles in the Australian Journal of Experimental Biology and Medical Science (now ICB). 2-10Much of Lush's earlier work with Burnet was critical for their establishment of a technique to study viruses including herpes, 8,9 myxoma virus 5 and influenza, 3,7 through the inoculation of developing chick eggs.Indeed, Burnet and Lush's foundational studies into the suitability of egg membrane virus as an antigen for complement fixation tests in influenza virus analysis 3 and their application of a technique to compare antigenically dissimilar strains of human influenza virus to make important epidemiological inferences and inform immunization strategies 7 led to the development and global production of the influenza vaccine today. 11t the same time as the isolation and identification of influenza A in 1933, there was renewed interest in Australia to study myxoma virus from the Leporipoxvirus genus, which causes lethal myxomatosis in European rabbits.Introduced to Australia in the 1800s, European rabbits had become a pest, with rabbit plagues devasting farming communities and upsetting Australia's unique native ecosystem.The ease of transmission, through mosquito bites, made the use of the myxoma virus a practical solution to control rabbit numbers but also had the potential to pose a significant danger to domestic animals if it lacked species specificity.Lush sought to test the cross-species immunogenicity of the virus to produce lesions, a common pathology associated with all the Leporipoxvirus genus, further developing the application of inoculating chick eggs, known as the chorioallantoic membrane technique 5 (Figure 4).Lush assumed that failure to grow on the egg membrane would confirm the exquisite species specificity of the virus.Surprisingly, using subcutaneous tissue from an infected rabbit, welldefined foci interspersed with immune cells formed on the egg membrane within days. 5Although these lesions regressed within a week, developing chick embryos had detectable viral loads within the liver and egg passage virus demonstrated full infectivity in rabbits. 5At the same time, a related member of the Leporipoxvirus genus, the Shope fibroma virus, was discovered by Richard Edwin Shope.Although a milder form of the virus, forming benign lesions that regress within a few weeks, Shope found that recovered rabbits were immune to myxoma virus. 12sing the chorioallantoic membrane technique Lush went on to study the in vitro inactivation of myxoma virus with fibroma antiserum, finding fixation of complement using myxoma antigen with both myxoma and fibroma antisera. 10Lush further identified inactivation of in vitro myxoma virus by fibroma antiserum, but as opposed to the large doses of myxoma virus used by Shope in in vivo experiments, smaller doses of fibroma antiserum reduced immunity of rabbits to myxomatosis and led to a modified, nonlethal form of myxoma infection. 10These studies helped to inform the release of the myxoma virus in Australia in 1950, which was recognized as the world's first biological control program of a mammalian pest. 13ush traveled abroad to the United Kingdom with the support of Burnet to work at the National Institute for Medical Research, London.Even though Lush was in London for the start of the Luftwaffe Blitz, she thoroughly enjoyed her time in London, expressed in letter communications back to her family in Australia.Initially sent to the UK to pursue polio research, as there would be better access to fetal tissue, after the onset of war, Lush transitioned to studying typhus and influenza due to the ensuing health care crisis brought on by World War II.It was in 1939, as she left Australia, that a mild influenza epidemic arrived in Melbourne.In isolating four different virus strains from patients, their families and staff at Bundoora Mental Hospital and a WEHI staff member, Lush discovered that an apparent homogenous viral epidemic could be caused by antigenically different strains of virus. 14ush concluded that widespread dissemination and multiplication of a single strain within a population could give rise to numerous minor antigenic variants.Indeed, to quote Miss Lush's work from the Australian Journal of Experimental Biology and Medical Science "it would be a natural extension of this idea to believe that in pandemic periods even wider variation might result, that in this way a reasonable explanation of the multiple waves in a pandemic as that of 1918-19 (H1-N1 influenza pandemic) may be obtained". 14Or as we now know, a pandemic such as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).Lush continued her work on influenza and typhus research upon her return to the WEHI in 1942.
Lush's brother Sir George Lush reflected "It isn't only that [Dora] could have done a lot more work of value to other people, but rather that inwardly she hadn't yet come to experience the calmer satisfactions and happinesses that other people get from their lives.It seems worse that she should die in that incompleteness". 15Yet, to this day the National Health and Medical Research Council recognizes the importance of her efforts in infectious disease research in Australia, awarding the Dora Lush Basic Science Research Scholarships to outstanding postgraduate students yearly in her honor.Dr Margaret Lush, Dora's niece, and her family donate through a family-managed fund to the annual Dora Lush Travel Fellowship at the Burnet Institute, awarded to an outstanding woman scientist to enable visibility and networking among the scientific community. 16Indeed, it is Dr Lush's granddaughters who participate in the decision making as to where the funds are awarded.Dr Lush "finds it delightful to see where their minds gofrom saving endangered corroboree frogs to supporting an organisation that provides sporting equipment to a refugee group", 16 demonstrating the enormous contributions and outreach of Lush's continuing legacy (Figure 5).