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Rosalyn Yalow
1921–2011 · Nuclear physics and medical physics
Rosalyn Yalow co-developed radioimmunoassay, a sensitive method that uses radioactive labels to measure tiny amounts of hormones and other substances.
“Would that he were here to share this moment.”
Why is this scientist famous?
Rosalyn Yalow and physician Solomon Berson developed radioimmunoassay, a method that combines radioactive labelling with antibody binding to measure very small amounts of substances such as insulin in blood.
Radioimmunoassay made it possible to measure substances that were present in minute concentrations, transforming hormone research and medical testing. Later methods, including enzyme-linked and other non-radioactive assays, extended the same broad idea of highly specific molecular measurement.
Rosalyn's story
A physicist enters medical research
Rosalyn Sussman grew up in the Bronx and studied physics at Hunter College, graduating in 1941. She continued at the University of Illinois, where she completed a doctorate in nuclear physics in 1945. Women faced substantial barriers in physics, and wartime vacancies helped make her graduate opportunity possible. After teaching and working in industry, she joined the Bronx Veterans Administration Hospital in 1947, where she began applying physics methods to medical questions.
A collaboration with Solomon Berson
At the VA hospital Yalow built a radioisotope service and began working with physician Solomon Berson. They used radioactive iodine to trace insulin in the body. When they studied people who had received insulin treatment, they found that some had developed antibodies that bound to insulin. This unexpected result challenged the simple idea that adult-onset diabetes always meant the body lacked insulin.
How radioimmunoassay works
Yalow and Berson developed a way to measure insulin by combining a radioactive form of the hormone with antibodies that bind insulin. A sample containing unlabelled insulin competes with the radioactive insulin for those antibody sites. By measuring how much radioactive insulin remains bound, researchers can infer the amount of insulin in the sample. The technique was extraordinarily sensitive and could be adapted to other substances with a specific binding partner.
From insulin to many biological substances
The method’s value extended beyond the original insulin question. Yalow’s 1977 Nobel lecture described how radioisotope methods could measure a wide range of biologically important substances. The technique became useful in endocrinology and research on hormones, vitamins, drugs and other molecules. Yalow and Berson published a series of studies, and their 1959 and 1960 papers documented key parts of the method and its application to insulin.
Recognition and continuing influence
Yalow spent most of her career at the Bronx VA, building a research programme while also supporting other scientists. She shared the 1977 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Roger Guillemin and Andrew Schally, whose work concerned peptide hormones produced in the brain; Yalow’s prize citation specifically recognised radioimmunoassay. Berson had died in 1972 and could not share the award. In her Nobel lecture, Yalow acknowledged him directly. Her work illustrates how tools from physics can answer questions in biology and medicine. Yalow continued research at the Bronx VA for decades after the Nobel, trained a generation of investigators and spoke publicly about barriers facing women in science.
What did they discover?
Radioisotope measurement in medicine
Applied nuclear-physics methods to trace insulin and other substances in human physiology.
Radioimmunoassay
Co-developed with Solomon Berson a competitive assay using radioactive labels and antibody binding to detect tiny concentrations.
Insulin metabolism research
Used the new method to study insulin levels and antibody formation in people treated with insulin.
Broader assay applications
Helped establish a method that other researchers adapted to measure a wide range of hormones and biological substances.
Amazing facts
Yalow’s first degree was in physics, not medicine; she brought nuclear-physics measurement methods into medical research.
At the University of Illinois in 1941, she was the only woman among about 400 teaching fellows and faculty members, according to the university’s history.
Her early research partner Solomon Berson was a physician; their work joined physics, immunology and clinical medicine.
Radioimmunoassay works through competition: labelled and unlabelled molecules compete for a limited number of antibody-binding sites.
The method grew out of an investigation of insulin metabolism rather than a plan to invent a general-purpose assay.
The Nobel Prize citation recognised Yalow for developing radioimmunoassays of peptide hormones; the other two 1977 recipients were recognised for separate work on brain hormone production.
Berson died five years before Yalow received the Nobel Prize; in her lecture she said, “Would that he were here to share this moment.”
Yalow’s Nobel lecture discussed measuring many kinds of biological substances, not only insulin.
Her work helped make measurements at extremely low concentrations possible; later assay methods adapted the same principle using non-radioactive labels.
Timeline
Born in New York City
Graduates from Hunter College with a degree in physics and begins graduate study at the University of Illinois
Completes a PhD in nuclear physics at the University of Illinois
Joins the Bronx Veterans Administration Hospital and begins medical-physics research
Yalow and Berson publish “Assay of Plasma Insulin in Human Subjects by Immunological Methods,” Nature 184, 1648–1649 (1959)
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is announced for Yalow, Guillemin and Schally
Delivers her Nobel lecture on radioimmunoassay in Stockholm
Receives the Nobel Prize at the award ceremony
Receives the US National Medal of Science
Dies in New York City
Awards & honours
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Marie Curie
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Sources & references
- Rosalyn Yalow — Facts, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1977
- Radioimmunoassay: A Probe for Fine Structure of Biological Systems, Yalow’s Nobel lecture (8 December 1977)
- Rosalyn Sussman Yalow, American Chemical Society
- Immunoassay of Endogenous Plasma Insulin in Man, Yalow and Berson, Journal of Clinical Investigation (1960; primary paper)
- Rosalyn S. Yalow, National Science Foundation, National Medal of Science recipients
- Rosalyn S. Yalow, The Grainger College of Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
- Assay of Plasma Insulin in Human Subjects by Immunological Methods, Nature 184, 1648–1649 (1959)