Rosalyn Sussman Yalow

Rosalyn Sussman Yalow (born July 19, 1921) is an American medical physicist, and a co-winner of the 1977 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for her development of the radioimmunoassay (RIA) technique.

Biography

Born Rosalyn Sussman in New York City to Simon Sussman and Clara Zipper, Dr. Yalow attended Walton High School and graduated in 1941 from Hunter College, where she developed an interest in physics.

As she knew how to type, she obtained a part time position as secretary to Dr. Rudolf Schoenheimer, a leading biochemist at Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons. Not believing that any good graduate school would admit and provide financial support to a woman Sussman studied stenography and took a job as a secretary to Michael Heidelberger, another biochemist at Columbia. She graduated from Hunter College in January 1941.

In mid-February she received an offer of a teaching assistantship in physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign because World War II came up and many men went off to war and the university offered scholarships for women rather than close down. That summer she took two tuition-free physics courses under government auspices at New York University. At the University of Illinois, she was the only woman among the department's 400 members, and the first since 1917. She married fellow student Aaron Yalow in 1943, and received her Ph.D. in 1945.After graduating, Yalow joined the Bronx Veterans Administration Hospital to help set up its radioisotope service. There she collaborated with Solomon Berson to develop RIA, a radioisotope tracing technique that allows the measurement of tiny quantities of various biological substances in the blood. Originally used to study insulin levels in diabetes mellitus, [Yalow RS, Berson SA. Immunoassay of endogenous plasma insulin in man. "J Clin Invest" 1960;39:1157-75. PMID 13846364.] the technique has since been applied to hundreds of other substances – including hormones, vitamins and enzymes – all previously too small to detect. Despite its huge commercial potential, Yalow and Berson refused to patent the method.

In 1975 Yalow and Berson received the AMA Scientific Achievement Award. The following year she became the first female recipient of the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research. In 1977 she received the Nobel Prize, together with Roger Guillemin and Andrew V. Schally. Berson had died in 1972, and so could not share the latter prizes. She received the National Medal of Science in 1988.

Dr. Yalow still lives in the same house in Riverdale, Bronx, New York that she bought when she first began working at the Bronx Veterans Administration Hospital in the 1940s. [ [http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1977/yalow-autobio.html Rosalyn Yalow Autobiography] , Nobel Prize. Accessed February 24, 2008. "During that period Aaron and I had two children, Benjamin and Elanna. We bought a house in Riverdale, less than a mile from the VA."]

References

Further reading

*Citation
id = PMID:11911104
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11911104
last=Patton
first=Dennis D
publication-date=2002 Mar
year=2002
title=Three Nobelists who paved the way.
volume=43
issue=3
periodical=J. Nucl. Med.
pages=25N-28N
*Citation
id = PMID:11794457
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11794457
last=Kyle
first=Robert A
last2=Shampo
first2=Marc A
publication-date=2002 Jan
year=2002
title=Rosalyn Yalow--pioneer in nuclear medicine.
volume=77
issue=1
periodical=Mayo Clin. Proc.
pages=4
*Citation
id = PMID:10543707
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10543707
last=Raju
first=T N
publication-date=1999 Oct 23
year=1999
title=The Nobel chronicles. 1977: Roger Charles Louis Guillemin (b 1924); Andrew Victor Schally (b 1926); Rosalyn S Yalow (b 1921).
volume=354
issue=9188
periodical=Lancet
pages=1481
*Citation
id = PMID:1574076
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1574076
publication-date=1992 Mar
year=1992
title=Festschrift for Rosalyn S. Yalow: hormones, metabolism, and society.
volume=59
issue=2
periodical=Mt. Sinai J. Med.
pages=95-185
*Citation
id = PMID:8946445
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8946445
id = PMID:8946444
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8946444
last=Yalow
first=R S
last2=Berson
first2=S A
publication-date=1996 Nov
year=1996
title=Immunoassay of endogenous plasma insulin in man. 1960.
volume=4
issue=6
periodical=Obes. Res.
pages=583-600
*Citation
id = PMID:1574075
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1574075
last=Straus
first=E W
publication-date=1992 Mar
year=1992
title=Festschrift for Rosalyn S. Yalow: Hormones, metabolism, and society.
volume=59
issue=2
periodical=Mt. Sinai J. Med.
pages=95-100
*Citation
id = PMID:1734492
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1734492
last=Yalow
first=R S
publication-date=1992 Jan
year=1992
title=The Nobel lectures in immunology. The Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, 1977 awarded to Rosalyn S. Yalow.
volume=35
issue=1
periodical=Scand. J. Immunol.
pages=1-23
*Citation
id = PMID:3309206
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3309206
last=Goldsmith
first=S J
publication-date=1987 Oct
year=1987
title=Georg de Hevesy Nuclear Medicine Pioneer Award Citation--1986. Rosalyn S. Yalow and Solomon A. Berson.
volume=28
issue=10
periodical=J. Nucl. Med.
pages=1637-9
*Citation
id = PMID:345822
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/345822
publication-date=1978 Feb
year=1978
title=Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1977 awarded to Veterans Administration senoior investigators.
volume=57
issue=1
periodical=American journal of physical medicine
pages=44-5
*Citation
id = PMID:349610
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/349610
last=Yanaihara
first=N
publication-date=1978
year=1978
title= [1977 Nobel Prize winners in medicine and physiology]
volume=23
issue=3
periodical=Tanpakushitsu Kakusan Koso
pages=232-6
*Citation
id = PMID:4351488
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/4351488
last=Schwartz
first=I L
publication-date=
year=
title=Solomon A. Berson and Rosalyn S. Yalow: a scientific appreciation.
volume=40
issue=3
periodical=Mt. Sinai J. Med.
pages=284-94

External links

* [http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1977/yalow-autobio.html Dr. Yalow's Autobiography]