Alma Levant Hayden - Wikipedia

Hayden joined the National Institute of Arthritis and Metabolic Diseases at the NIH.[2] The above photograph was taken there in 1952, showing her working with a technique called paper chromatography, spraying reagent on liquids dropped onto paper to detect precursors to steroids.[2][7][8]

In the mid-1950s Hayden moved to the FDA, where she may have been the first person of color to work at the Agency.[1] There had reportedly been a reluctance to employ African-Americans there because scientific officers may have to give testimony in courts, and there was concern about how this would be received in some parts of the U.S. In 1963, Hayden became Chief of the Spectrophotometer Research Branch in the Division of Pharmaceutical Chemistry.[1]

In 1962 in the wake of the Thalidomide tragedy, the Kefauver Harris Amendment increased the FDA's role in ensuring drug safety.[9][10] With these provisions in place, the FDA sought to identify the ingredients in Krebiozen, a controversial and expensive alternative cancer treatment.[11][12] Hayden assigned students in her branch the task of seeing whether spectrometer images of Krebiozen matched any of the 20,000 alphabetically-listed images on file at the FDA. On September 3, 1963,[13] a likely match was quickly found in the "C"s: a common substance, creatine.[3][12] It occurs in the body at a far higher level than contained in Krebiozen, and had been shown to have no impact on cancer in animals.[3][12]

Spectrophotometry and crystallography studies were conducted independently by three teams, including scientists from MIT.[14] The discovery was announced at a press conference.[12][15] Hayden's report is detailed in the U.S. Congressional Record.[16] Hayden testified at the lengthy criminal trial of the promoters of Krebiozen,[11][17] Stevan Durovic and Andrew C. Ivy.[13]