[1] She earned her bachelor's and master's degrees at the University of Kansas, both in zoology, and a PhD at Bryn Mawr College in 1916.
[2] After earning her PhD, Medes went to teach at Vassar College in 1916 serving first as an instructor in zoology until 1919 and then as an assistant professor of physiology until 1922.
In 1924 she went to University of Minnesota Medical School where she served as a fellow for her first year and then an assistant professor until 1932.
Although her patient was atypical and the mechanism she identified has since been questioned, her testing methods remain a useful model for researchers studying the disorder now known as tyrosinemia.
[9] While in retirement, Medes resumed her work on tyrosinosis, which she put aside while at Lankenau, at the Fels Research Institute at Temple University.