Rosalyn Yalow

American physicist

• Born: July 19, 1921; Bronx, New York
• Died: May 30, 2011; Bronx, New York

Yalow helped develop the radioimmunoassay technique for the measurement of minute quantities of biological materials in blood. This technique was established after her research determined that people who had received injections of the polypeptide hormone insulin for conditions such as diabetes developed antibodies against the hormone. For her work, Yalow was awarded a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1977.

Primary field: Physics

Specialty: Nuclear physics

Early Life

Rosalyn Yalow (YAH-loh) was born Rosalyn Sussman in the New York City borough of the South Bronx. She was the second child, and first daughter, of Simon Sussman and Clara Zipper Sussman. Neither of her parents had any significant level of formal education. Simon, a Russian American Jew born on the Lower East Side, never finished grade school. He earned a living with a paper and twine business. Yalow’s mother, Clara, had emigrated from Germany at the age of four.

Rosalyn was described by one of her biographers as a “precocious, stubborn, and determined child.” Along with her brother, she made frequent trips to the local library, and she learned to read before entering kindergarten. Her formal schooling set the stage for her later work. Attending local public schools, she developed a strong interest in mathematics by the seventh grade, and in chemistry while attending Walton High School.

While enrolled at Hunter College, Yalow read the recently published biography of Marie Curie written by Eve Curie, the daughter of the great scientist. Yalow later recommended the book to women interested in careers in science. A colloquium on nuclear fission sponsored by Enrico Fermi and strong support from her professors convinced Yalow that she should consider a career in physics. In 1941, she became the first graduate with a degree in physics from Hunter College.

Despite the reluctance of graduate schools to accept and support women in physics, Yalow was offered a teaching assistantship at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She was the only woman among four hundred students and the first woman within that college since 1917. On the first day of school, she met a physics student named Aaron Yalow, whom she would marry in June, 1943. She received her PhD degree in physics in 1945.

Life’s Work

Yalow’s graduate career in nuclear physics was strongly influenced by her adviser, Maurice Goldhaber, and his wife, Gertrude, who was also a physicist. Under their direction, Yalow became competent in the safe handling of radioisotopes and in the use of apparatuses for their measurement. Yalow’s first job following her graduation was as an assistant engineer at the Federal Telecommunications Laboratory (FTL) in New York. She was the only female engineer at FTL at the time. Since Aaron Yalow had not yet completed the work for his thesis, Roslyn returned to New York alone. Aaron joined her in late 1945 on the staff at Montefiore Medical Center as a medical physicist.

In 1946, with the closing of FTL, Yalow returned to Hunter College as a physics instructor for veterans returning from the war. During this period, Yalow also began developing an interest in medical research. Through her husband’s contacts, Yalow met Edith Quimby, a medical researcher at New York’s Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. Since Quimby was interested in the application of physics to medical research, Yalow volunteered to work in Quimby’s laboratory, gaining experience in the use of radioisotopes for such research.

During the early postwar period, Yalow’s expanding knowledge and experience in the field of physics was a rare commodity. In December 1946, she was hired as a part-time consultant in the newly opened Radioisotope Section of the Bronx Veterans Administration (VA) Hospital, a place that Yalow considered to be the first organization to “recognize the importance of radioisotopes in medicine.” The facilities at the hospital were crude, to say the least. One portion of the facilities was located in a converted janitor’s closet. Of necessity, Yalow was forced to design and build much of the equipment for the laboratory. Yalow’s research at the VA Hospital focused on the application of nuclear materials to medical diagnosis and therapy. She was highly successful in this endeavor, producing numerous publications and receiving official support and recognition from the Veterans Administration.

By 1950, Yalow had resigned her position at Hunter College to become a full-time member of the VA staff. That same year, a thirty-two-year-old resident at the VA Hospital, Solomon Berson, was appointed to Yalow’s group, becoming chief of the service four years later. Berson and Yalow began an extensive collaboration, each supporting the other: Yalow provided the experience in mathematics and nuclear medicine, and Berson provided the necessary clinical expertise. Their collaboration continued for more than two decades, ending only with Berson’s sudden death in 1972.

Yalow and Berson began their collaboration by attempting to improve the application of radioisotopes in the clinical diagnosis of disease. Specifically, they developed a method for measuring the rate at which a radioactive isotope of iodine (Iodine-131) is metabolized. When their first publication on the subject appeared in 1952, it was hailed as an important contribution to the use of diagnostic tracers in medicine. Shortly thereafter, Yalow and Berson began applying their techniques to the analysis of proteins in blood serum, focusing on the metabolism of insulin. Through their research, they developed the technique of radioimmunoassay (RIA) for the measurement of insulin. In the early 1960s, Yalow and Berson extended their research to the study of other hormones within the body. The RIA procedures they had developed proved to be applicable to a wide variety of studies. Meanwhile, Berson became more involved with administrative work, leaving the research area to Yalow. In 1967, the Veterans Administration Hospital became associated with Mt. Sinai School of Medicine. Berson became chair of the Department of Medicine, and Yalow eventually became chief of Nuclear Medicine Service, formerly the Radioisotope Section. Yalow was also appointed research professor at Mt. Sinai, and in 1974, she became a distinguished research professor at the medical school.

In 1972, Berson’s unexpected death ended years of joint study. That same year, Yalow became the first woman appointed senior medical investigator at the VA Hospital. At Yalow’s request, her laboratory was renamed the Solomon Berson Research Laboratory.

Numerous awards followed. Yalow was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1975 and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1978. In 1976, she became the first woman to receive the Albert Lasker Award for basic medical research. Yalow also received many other honorary doctorates and awards. In 1977, she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the development of radioimmunoassays. Subsequently, Yalow served on a wide range of advisory committees and prestigious boards and as a consultant for numerous national and international organizations.

Impact

Yalow was among the first scientists to wed the emerging field of nuclear physics to diagnostic medicine, and her success is an example of how far women have progressed in science. Yalow’s parents, though strong supporters of her education, initially pressured her to go into the “standard” female profession of education. It was to Yalow’s credit that she overcame this and more overt discrimination to settle and succeed in what was an overwhelmingly male scientific field at the time.

The methodology that Yalow and Berson developed had benefits and applications far beyond the initial area of diabetic research. The RIA technique has subsequently been applied to measurements of most serum proteins, vitamins, drugs, and hundreds of other substances. There had been no technique that could measure minute changes in concentrations of these substances during various biological states.

Bibliography

Blumenthal, Stanley. “The Insulin Immunoassay after 50 Years.” Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 52.3 (2009): 343–54. Print. Reviews the ideas that were current in the medical research community when Berson and Yalow began the work that led to the development of radioimmunoassay.

Magill, Frank N., ed. “Rosalyn S. Yalow.” The Nobel Prize Winners: Physiology or Medicine. Vol. 3. Pasadena: Salem, 1991. Print. Provides a synopsis of Yalow’s work and information on her personal life and career. Includes a list of Yalow’s important publications.

Straus, Eugene. Rosalyn Yalow, Nobel Laureate: Her Life and Work in Medicine. Cambridge, MA: Perseus, 1999. Print. A comprehensive biography detailing Yalow’s life and work, including her work with Sol Berson on blood volume, the thyroid, insulin, and the development of radioimmunoassay.

Tang, Joyce. Scientific Pioneers: Women Succeeding in Science. Lanham, MD: UP of America, 2006. Print. Analyzes the political, cultural, personal, and economic influences of ten outstanding women scientists, including Yalow.