Rosalyn Yalow

Today is the birthday of Nobel laureate Rosalyn Sussman Yalow, who was born 19 July 1921 in New York City. After earning a degree from Hunter College in 1941 she received a scholarship from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign becoming the first woman in the physics department at the university since 1917. She earned her PhD in 1945 and then began working at the Bronx Veterans Administration Medical Center. Working with Solomon Berson, she helped develop radioimmunoassay, a technique in which radioisotopes are used to measure the concentrations of specific molecules within human blood. Originally the technique was used for studying insulin levels, but is now most well-known for testing blood donations for hepatitis. In 1968 she became a research professor at Mount Sinai Hospital. In 1977 she shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Roger Guillemin and Andrew V. Schally for her work on radioimmunoassay. Yalow passed away in 2011.

Date in History: 19 July 1921