Anita Agatha Kurmann (November 22, 1976 – August 7, 2015)[1][2] was a Swiss endocrinologist and thyroid surgeon. Life Anita studied medicine in Basel and worked at the Inselspital in Bern, then moved to Boston to train in research at the Beth Israel Deaconess hospital, where she was a post-doctoral fellow.[3][4] She worked with a multi-institution group based at Boston University[5] that was the first to generate thyroid cell progenitors and thyroid follicular organoids from pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) in mice, and thyroid cell progenitors from induced PSCs in humans.[5] This was achieved by establishing the signalling required to create a…

Marie Heim-Vögtlin (7 October 1845 in Bözen – 7 November 1916 in Zürich) was the first female Swiss physician, a writer and a co-founder of the first Swiss gynaecological hospital. Education Born as the daughter of the pastor of Bözen, Marie Vögtlin benefited from a private education in the Romandie and in Zürich. In 1867, her fiancé, a student of medicine, broke off the engagement. He married Nadezhda Suslova, Europe’s first female physician, instead. In response and with the reluctant support of her father, Vögtlin applied for admission herself to the study of medicine at the University of Zürich, which…

Caroline Farner (1842–1913) is notable for being the second female Swiss doctor as well as a campaigner for the Swiss women’s movement.[1] Early life Born and raised in Guntershausen bei Aadorf, she was the seventh and youngest children of a farmer and his wife, who was the main provider of health care for the surrounding area. After her mother’s death when she was 15, Farner was brought up by her elder sister. After leaving school, she worked as a governess in Scotland for eight years.[1] Public life After nursing several family members through illness, she became disillusioned with her previous…