Edith Bülbring was born 27 Dec 1903 in Bonn, Germany, the youngest child of Karl Daniel Bülbring and a Dutch Jewish mother, Hortense Leonore Kann. She had an older brother who was killed in action in the First World War, and two older sisters, Maud and Lucie. Her father died in 1917 when she was a teenager. She studied medicine at the universities of Bonn, Munich and Freiburg, qualifying in 1929. She practised as a physician before undertaking research at the Infectious Disease Unit at the Virchow Krankenhaus in Berlin. She was dismissed from this position in 1933 due to her Jewish ancestry. She took a holiday in England the same year, and through a former colleague was offered a research post at the Pharmaceutical Society, London, under J.H. Burn. When Burn was appointed to a Professorship at Oxford University, she moved as part of his team, and was appointed Departmental Demonstrator in 1937. She was naturalized in 1948. She became a Professorial Fellow of Lady Margaret Hall in 1960 and a Professor in 1967. Her most influential work was on the physiology of smooth muscle.

She lived with her sister, Maud, in Oxford, and after Maud's death, with her sister Lucie. She did not marry. She died 5 Jul 1990 in Oxford. Further details can be found in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.