Louise Pearce was born in Winchester, Massachusetts on March 5, 1885. She received a degree in physiology (a rarity for women at the time) from Stanford University, and in 1912 was awarded an M.D. degree from Johns Hopkins.

After working for a year as house officer at Johns Hopkins, Pearce wrote a letter to Simon Flexner, director of the Rockefeller Institute, requesting a position on its staff. Pearce joined the Institute in 1913, working directly with Flexner and Wade Hampton Brown on the development of a drug to control African sleeping sickness.

In 1919, Pearce and Brown discovered a compound called tryparsamide, which Pearce tested on a solo research mission to the Belgian Congo (Zaire) following an outbreak of the disease. The results were so successful that the Belgian government awarded her the King Leopold prize and made her an officer of the Royal Order of the Lion.

Pearce continued her collaboration with Dr. Brown upon her return. Their work led to the discoveries of the viral cause of rabbit pox, and the discovery of the Brown-Pearce carcinoma in rabbits. She remained at the Institute until her retirement in 1951.

Dr. Pearce died in New York City on August 10, 1959.