[1] Part of one of the few African-American husband-and-wife teams in science, Gladys worked with George C. Royal on research supported by the United States Atomic Energy Commission.

At Tuskegee and Ohio State she took classes; by 1953, she was sufficiently qualified to become a professor of chemistry at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College in Greensboro.

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the Royals collaborated on important research including that funded by the United States Atomic Energy Commission involving bone marrow transplants to treat radiation overdoses.

[2] African-American husband-and-wife teams in science were extremely rare in the early and mid-20th century due to the social, educational and economic climate regarding African Americans in the United States.

[3][11] The Atomic Energy Commission supported at least five grants for funding research on bone marrow transplants, which were proposed jointly by George and Gladys W.

[4] As of 1964, Royal was actively pursuing her interest in flavor chemistry, collaborating with Arthur S. Totten, Associate Professor of Poultry Husbandry at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College.

[20] In 1977, she brought suit against the head of the Department of Agriculture and others for "declaratory and injunctive relief and damages for discrimination on account of race".