Vaughan, Janet (1899–1993)

English haematologist and radiobiologist. She studied the causes of vitamin B12 deficiency (pernicious anaemia), working for a time with the Nobel Prize winning US physician George Minot, and also led successful research into the effect of radioactive isotopes on bone formation and metabolism. She was created a DBE in 1957 and elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1979.

During World War II Vaughan helped to establish transfusion depots in London, and in 1945 she went to the Nazi's Belsen concentration camp to assess the value of concentrated protein solutions in treating starvation. Her written works include The Anaemias (1934).

Vaughan was educated at home, and studied physiology at Somerville College, Oxford. After clinical studies at University College Hospital, London, she became assistant pathologist there, developing an interest in the new treatment of pernicious anaemia, formerly fatal, with a diet containing raw liver extract.