Florence Shyne Bowers
grew up in Grambling, Louisiana. She earned a Bachelor of Science
degree in Biology from Lincoln University in 1957 and later earned a
Master of Science degree from The American University with a dual
major in Molecular Biology and Immunology.
Her career in the
life sciences began in 1963 as a Research Assistant in the
Rheumatology Laboratory, Division of Rheumatic Diseases, Georgetown
University Medical Center. There, she was involved in studies on
hemolytic complement in the synovial fluid of patients with certain
autoimmune diseases. From 1966 to 1970, she was Research Assistant to
a nephrologists-protein chemist at George Washington University
Medical Center where she focused on the characterization of abnormal
serum proteins found in patients with kidney disease.
In 1972 she went to
work as a Research Assistant at Huntingdon Research Center,
Brooklandville, Maryland, and in 1978 was appointed Manager of its
Immunology Department. In this position she also served as
Co-Investigator of a National Cancer Institute Contract for the
development of diagnostic reagents to mammalian oncogenic RNA viruses.
In 1988 she began work as a Research Biologist in the Laboratory of
Immunogenetics, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases,
National Institutes of Health. In the Laboratory of Immunogenetics,
she joined a team of investigators who were attempting to establish an
animal model in which to study the human T-cell leukemia virus,
HTLV-1, a Type C retrovirus shown to be closely associated with human
T-cell malignancies. This team became one of the first to report the
derivation of an infectious molecular clone of the HTLV-1 virus,
providing an invaluable tool for researchers engaged in the study of
viral gene functions. Bowers passion for research in the areas of
immunology and cell biology lead her in 2001 to present a research
paper on “Apoptosis in the Physiology of the Immune System” at the
11th International Congress of Immunology in Stockholm, Sweden. She is
married to Lincoln University alumnus, Shellie Bowers, Sr., a retired
judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, also a member
of the Hall of Fame. They have two sons and one granddaughter.
