Name June Almeida | Children 1 | |
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Institutions Glasgow Royal Infirmary, St Bartholomew's Hospital, Ontario Cancer Institute, Royal Postgraduate Medical School, Wellcome Research Laboratory Spouse Enriques Rosalio (Henry) Almeida (m. 1954), Phillip Samuel Gardner (m. 1982–94) (deceased) | ||
June Dalziel Almeida (5 October 1930 – 1 December 2007) was a Scottish virologist who, with little formal education, became a Doctor of Science and a pioneer in virus imaging, identification and diagnosis. Her skills in electron microscopy earned her an international reputation. In 1964, Almeida was recruited by St Thomas's Hospital Medical School in London. By 1967, she had earned her Doctor of Science (Sc.D.) on the basis of her research and the resulting publications, while working in Canada, at Toronto's Ontario Cancer Institute and then in London at St Thomas.
In 1967, she continued her research at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School (RPGMS), which is now part of the Imperial College School of Medicine. She succeeded in identifying viruses that were previously unknown, including—in 1966—a group of viruses that was later named coronavirus.
Her immune electron microscopy (IEM) innovations and insights contributed to research related to the diagnosis of hepatitis B, HIV, and rubella, among other viral diseases. Her electron micrographs continue to be included in virology review textbooks, decades after she produced them.
Electron micrograph of 'corona' (crown) virus produced by Almeida in 1966.
Biography
June Dalziel Hart was born on 5 October 1930 at 10 Duntroon Street, Glasgow to Jane Dalziel (née Steven) and Harry Leonard Hart, a bus driver. She left school at 16 to work as a histopathology technician at Glasgow Royal Infirmary. She then moved to St Bartholomew's Hospital to continue her career.
On 11 December 1954 she married Enriques Rosalio (Henry) Almeida (1913–1993), a Venezuelan artist with whom she had a daughter, Joyce. They moved to Canada where she worked at the Ontario Cancer Institute as an electronmicroscopist. Despite having few formal qualifications she was promoted in line with her abilities. Publications credited her for her work on identifying viral structure. Her abilities were recognised by A. P. Waterson, then Professor of microbiology at St Thomas's Hospital Medical School who persuaded her to return to England to work at the hospital. She developed a method to better visualise viruses by using antibodies to aggregate them. She worked on hepatitis B and the cold virus.
Almeida produced the first images of the rubella virus. David Tyrrell and Almeida worked on characterising a new type of viruses now called coronaviruses. This family includes the SARS virus.
Almeida followed Waterson to the Postgraduate Medical School in London where her contributions to articles were recognised by her award of a Doctorate. She finished her career at the Wellcome Institute. While working for Wellcome she was named on several patents in the field of imaging viruses. She left Wellcome and began to teach yoga but she returned in an advisory role in the late 1980s when she helped take novel pictures of the HIV virus. She published Manual for rapid laboratory viral diagnosis in 1979.
Almeida died in Bexhill from a heart attack in 2007.