By Matt Schudel
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
June A. Bradlaw, 71, a research biologist with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition whose work led to test-tube alternatives to using animals in laboratory testing, died of a stroke May 30 at William W. Backus Hospital in Norwich, Conn. She had homes in Norwich and Rockville.
Dr. Bradlaw joined the FDA in 1965 and spent her career working in genetic toxicology and in vitro toxicology research. One of her specialties was the use of cultured mammalian cells to study the effects of carcinogenic agents.
Her work in the field of in vitro toxicology, particularly in the evaluation of products for public safety, made her internationally known. Since 1975, she had been an advocate of the use of cell culture systems, which eliminated much of the need for live animals in lab toxicology tests.
She became leader of the FDA's in vitro toxicology group in 1985 and, eight years later, was co-chairman and co-author of a study by the Interagency Regulatory Alternatives Group on eye irritation testing. Her work led to the first international evaluations comparing in vitro testing with testing on animals. As a result of the study, the Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Validation of Alternative Methods was founded in 1997 to evaluate alternative forms of toxicology testing.
After retiring from the FDA in 1999, Dr. Bradlaw was chairman of the science advisory board of the International Foundation for Ethical Research and an adviser to the National Anti-Vivisection Society.
She was a member of the Society for In Vitro Biology for more than 35 years and held several top positions with the group, including secretary and member of the executive board. The society honored her with its lifetime achievement award in 2001.
Dr. Bradlaw was a member of the scientific advisory committee on alternative testing methods for the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and was secretary and vice president of the Washington chapter of the American Society for Microbiology. She also was a member of a committee of the American Society for Testing and Materials, evaluating medical and surgical devices.
For several years in the 1980s, she was an adjunct professor of microbiology at George Washington University.
Dr. Bradlaw was born in Norwich and came to Washington in 1958 after graduating from Connecticut College. She worked for the Department of Agriculture for seven years before joining the FDA in 1965. She received a master's degree in microbiology from the University of Maryland in 1964 and a doctorate in microbiology from the George Washington University School of Medicine in 1974.
In recent years, she was a judge of the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair for high school students. Two weeks before her death, she traveled to Atlanta to judge the 2008 contest. Eight days before she died, Dr. Bradlaw was among the first five members of the DNA EpiCenter's Barbara McClintock Class of Scholars in New London, Conn.
In the late 1990s, Dr. Bradlaw wrote a children's book, "Tree Bear's Adventures in Learning," about a bear promoting forest conservation. It was illustrated by her uncle, Harry L. Rossoll, who helped create some of the early drawings of Smokey Bear for the U.S. Forest Service.
Survivors include her companion of seven years, Fred McCann of Rockville.