Sussman, Rosalyn Yalow was an American scientist and medical physicist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1977 for establishing the RIA technique (radioimmunoassay). She was the first and only woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. With the use of radioactive isotopes, the approach was utilized to measure various minute quantities of biological components in human blood and other aqueous fluids. The approach employs two reagents, the radioactive reagent bonding with the target substance and the antibody reagent chemically reacting with the target substance. Initially, this approach was used to test the quantity of insulin in the blood, but it was later expanded to measure hundreds of other compounds in the bloodstream, including vitamins, hormones, enzymes, and medicines that were previously difficult to detect. Another physicist, Solomon A. Berson, assisted Yalow in creating the RIA approach. Because Solomon Berson was no longer alive when the news was made, she split the prize money with two other scientists, Andrew Schally and Roger Guillemin. She was also the first woman to accomplish a number of other scientific milestones over her career, including discovering the underlying mechanism that caused type-II diabetes. Her radioimmunoassay technique is also used to check for hepatitis virus infection in patients.
Childhood and Adolescence
Sussman, Rosalyn Yalow was born on July 19, 1921, in The Bronx, New York City, USA. Simon Sussman, her father, was the son of a Russian immigrant, and Clara Zipper, her mother, was a German immigrant. Alexander, her older brother, was her only sibling.
Despite their lack of formal education, both of her parents encouraged their children to read and write by taking them to the public library when they ran out of books.
Yalow enrolled at the Bronx’s ‘Walton High School,’ where he developed an interest in science courses such as mathematics and chemistry.
She enrolled in Hunter College after graduating from high school, which offered courses tailored to women. Later, this college was absorbed into the ‘City University of New York.’ She majored in nuclear physics at this university. Despite her parents’ wishes for her to become a teacher, she continued her education.
She received honors from Hunter College in January 1941 and enrolled in a business school, but did not stay long.
She wanted to acquire a backdoor admission into graduate classes because good graduate schools did not accept female students for Ph.D. programs or provide financial aid.
She planned to work as a secretary and typewriter for Dr. Rudolf Schoenheimer at the ‘College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University, with the support of her previous physics professor Dr. Jerrold Zacharias.
When she was given a teaching assistantship in the physics department at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana in February 1941, she jumped at the chance and enrolled in the most prestigious graduate school in June 1941.
It was discovered during a meeting of the faculty members of the ‘College of Engineering in September that she was the only female member among the 400 other members. The Dean congratulated her on being the first women member since 1917.
In 1945, she earned a Ph.D. in physics from the ‘University of Illinois.’
Rosalyn Yalow’s Career
Rosalyn Yalow arrived in New York in January 1945 without her husband Aaron Yalow, who was still working on his thesis at the University of Illinois and would only be able to join her in September 1945.
She became the sole woman assistant engineer at the ‘Federal Telecommunications Facility,’ but had to return to ‘Hunter College’ when the laboratory closed down in 1946.
She began teaching physics at Hunter College from 1946 to 1950, not just to women but also to military veterans.
She was hired as a part-time nuclear physics consultant at the ‘Bronx Veterans Administration Hospital’ in December 1947. She worked here as an assistant chief and physicist in the radioisotopes department. She stayed on as a professor at Hunter College until the spring of 1950.
With the support of another American scientist named Solomon A. Berson, she began her research on the impact of radioisotopes on various diseases at Hunter College.
Her research on the etiology of Type II diabetes led to the development of the RIA method. Animal insulin had to be injected in increasing volumes into a diabetic patient to be effective by the 1950s, but there was no explanation for this developing resistance to insulin.
Yalow’s RIA approach revealed that foreign insulin produced antibodies that adhered to the insulin and decreased its ability to fight glucose.
She was named Chief of the Laboratory of the Veterans Administration Hospital, which later became known as the ‘Nuclear Medical Service.’
Yalow’s technique was quickly used for measuring traces of various biological molecules such as medicines, viruses, proteins, hormones, and other compounds. The approach was also useful in detecting the hepatitis virus and determining the most efficient antibiotic dosages.
In 1979, she was named a distinguished professor at large at Yeshiva University’s ‘Albert Einstein College.’
In 1985, she left this college to become a ‘Solomon A. Berson Distinguished Professor at Large’ at the ‘Mount Sinai School of Medicine.’
Achievements and Awards
In 1976, Rosalyn S. Yalow became the first woman to receive the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award.
In 1977, she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
In 1988, she was awarded the National Medal of Science.
Personal History and Legacy
She had two children with Aaron Yalow, a son named Benjamin and a daughter named Elanna, whom she married in 1943.
Rosalyn S. Yalow died on May 30, 2011, in New York, New York.
Estimated Net worth
Rosalyn Sussman Yalow is one of the wealthiest physicists and one of the most well-known. Rosalyn Sussman Yalow has a net worth of $1.5 million, according to Wikipedia, Forbes, and Business Insider.