ROSALYNYALOW
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1977
Courtesy of Benjamin Yalow
Rosalyn Yalow became a physicist at a time when being a woman was a serious impediment to success. But succeed she did. With her research partner Solomon Berson, she made a transformative contribution to medical research: radioimmunoassay, a method for measuring concentrations of substances in the blood.
Rosalyn Yalow Courtesy of Benjamin Yalow
Born Rosalyn Sussman in the South Bronx in 1921, she was undeterred by her family’s disadvantages. Although her parents hadn’t finished high school, she was determined to get a college degree; although her home had few books, she read constantly.
Rosalyn Yalow in the laboratory. She conducted her research at the VA Medical Center in Bronx, New York, from 1947 to 1991. Photo: U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
She excelled in all academic subjects, but the mid-1930s was a thrilling time for physics, especially for nuclear physics, and Yalow was intrigued. Once she read Marie Curie’s biography and attended a colloquium given by Enrico Fermi on nuclear fission, she was hooked.
As a smart but poor New York City girl, Yalow attended Hunter College, a highly competitive free women’s college. Her parents fought for her to study education and become a teacher like other learned young ladies of her time. But she wanted to be a physicist, so instead she became Hunter’s first physics major, graduating early and with honours.
The world cannot afford the loss of the talents of half of its people if we are to solve the many problems which beset us.
ROSALYN YALOW
Rosalyn Yalow, 1961 © Walter Sanders/The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty Images
But graduate programs were not eager to give assistantships to women, and she could not pay for a degree. So she took a job as a secretary for a biochemist at Columbia University in exchange for classes.
Yalow got her break not long after, when the US joined the war and male scientists signed up to fight. In 1941, Yalow accepted an assistantship at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana in the College of Engineering; in a faculty of 400, she was the only woman. She earned her PhD in nuclear physics and learned how to build and use equipment to measure radioactive substances.
Rosalyn Yalow, 1961 © Walter Sanders/The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty Images
Rosalyn Yalow from LIFE Magazine's Women of Achievement series by Walter Sanders © Walter Sanders/The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty Images
Rosalyn Yalow, 1961 © Walter Sanders/The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty Images
Rosalyn Yalow from LIFE Magazine's Women of Achievement series by Walter Sanders © Walter Sanders/The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty Images
At the age of 26, back in New York, Yalow joined the Veterans Administration Hospital in the Bronx to develop the Radioisotope Service, a department that would explore medical applications of radioactive isotopes. She converted a janitor’s closet into her first laboratory.
Rosalyn Yalow on her wedding day in June 1943. She married Aaron Yalow and they had two kids, Benjamin and Elanna. Courtesy of Benjamin Yalow
Rosalyn Yalow with Aaron Yalow. They married in 1943, and were married 49 years when he died in 1992. Courtesy of Benjamin Yalow
Rosalyn Yalow on her wedding day in June 1943. She married Aaron Yalow and they had two kids, Benjamin and Elanna. Courtesy of Benjamin Yalow
Rosalyn Yalow with Aaron Yalow. They married in 1943, and were married 49 years when he died in 1992. Courtesy of Benjamin Yalow
Meanwhile, Yalow was settling into her family life as well. While working at the VA, she had two children with her husband, Aaron Yalow, whom she had met in graduate school. She firmly believed women could have both a career and a family.
The only difference between men and women in science is that the women have the babies. This makes it more difficult for women in science, but… it is merely another challenge to be overcome.
ROSALYN YALOW
Rosalyn Yalow, who developed radioimmunoassay, a method for measuring concentrations of substances in the blood. Photo: US Information Agency
When she was at the VA, women had to leave once they were five months pregnant, according to policy. She ignored it.
Rosalyn Yalow, with Dr. Sol Berson (left) Photo: U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
In 1950, Solomon Berson joined her small team at the VA, kicking off a 22-year research collaboration with Yalow, then 29. Yalow and Berson first attempted to use radioisotopes to estimate blood volume more accurately. Soon they applied their methods to insulin.
Insulin was an attractive subject of research because its purified form was easy to obtain, and it was easier to work with than other hormones. But Yalow was also drawn to insulin for a personal reason: her own husband was a diabetic.
Rosalyn Yalow in the laboratory © National Library of Medicine
To begin, Yalow and Berson attached radioactive iodine to molecules of insulin and injected minute amounts of the radioactive-tagged insulin into volunteers, including themselves.
Rosalyn Yalow with her research partner Solomon Berson, when she won the 1961 Ely Lilly Award of the American Diabetes Association. Courtesy of Benjamin Yalow
Over the course of several hours, they took frequent blood samples to determine how quickly the insulin was being metabolised and leaving the bloodstream. Using this technique, Yalow and Berson found that people with type II diabetes were unable to process insulin not because they lacked the hormone, but because their bodies produced an antibody that rejected it.
This was a big discovery for the treatment of diabetes. But it was an even greater discovery for the future of medical research. Yalow and Berson’s method – using radioactively tagged substances to measure antibodies produced by the immune system – would make biological research possible on a whole new level. Radioimmunoassay, or RIA, as they called it, could detect extremely low concentrations of substances, far lower than ever before.
Rosalyn Yalow receives the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1977 from King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden. Courtesy of Benjamin Yalow
RIA allowed doctors to make much more precise measurements, down to the billionth of a gram. And it wasn’t just hormones: in Yalow's 1977 Nobel Lecture, she listed more than 100 biological substances - hormones, drugs, vitamins, enzymes, viruses, non-hormonal proteins, and more - that one could measure using RIA.
Rosalyn Yalow was one of the women featured in 'Women's History Series' by N.O.W., 4 March 1979 Courtesy of Science History Institute
Rosalyn Yalow at her desk at the VA Medical Center in Bronx, New York Photo: U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
Rosalyn Yalow was one of the women featured in 'Women's History Series' by N.O.W., 4 March 1979 Courtesy of Science History Institute
Rosalyn Yalow at her desk at the VA Medical Center in Bronx, New York Photo: U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
It’s used for everything from ascertaining proper dosages for antibiotics, and screening for the hepatitis virus, to treating couples struggling with infertility. The list goes on. All of this is possible because Rosalyn Yalow refused to let prejudice sway her from her course.
The trouble with discrimination is not discrimination per se, but rather that the people who are discriminated against think of themselves as second-class.
ROSALYN YALOW
Rosalyn Yalow, 1986 Courtesy of Benjamin Yalow
