She studied immunology and bacteriology at the University of British Columbia, earning a BA in 1955.
[2] Her research led her and her colleagues to participate in the development of photodynamic therapy (PDT) initially for treating cancer but more significantly as the first medical treatment of one of the leading causes of blindness among the elderly, age-related macular degeneration (AMD).
In 1984, she joined the four founding members at biopharmaceutical company Quadra Logic Technologies (later QLT Inc.).
The PDT drug Photofrin was approved by the Canadian government for treatment of bladder cancer in 1993.
In the mid-1980s she and colleagues discovered the PDT agent, verteporfin, which QLT and its partner CIBA Vision (now Novartis Ophthalmalics) developed as Visudyne, a treatment for AMD.