[2][7] Complications from the birth of twins left her mother with high blood pressure that affected her memory.
She worked on "wound-healing hormones" and helped to create a new hemorrhoid cream (preparation H)" before studying DNA bases and structure.
Later she taught at Siena Heights College in Adrian and attended graduate school at the Institutum Divi Thomae.
Sister Miriam's technique was demonstrated to be superior to the previously-used oil method in a number of ways; "there was an absence of interfering bands, lower scattering losses, higher resolution of spectra, better control of concentration and homogeneity of sample, ease in examining small samples, and possibility of storing of specimens for further studies".
[8][2] This sort of method would have the capacity to accomplish a more exact spectrum of the compounds inside a substance and their position, which would alter infrared spectroscopy for quite a while, and furthermore affirm the Watson - Crick Model of the double helix for DNA.