Yalow, Rosalyn (Sussman)

orig. Rosalyn Sussman

(born July 19, 1921, New York, N.Y., U.S.) U.S. medical physicist. She received a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Illinois. She developed the technique of radioimmunoassay (RIA) by combining techniques from radioisotope tracing and immunology. RIA proved a very sensitive and simple way to measure tiny concentrations of biological substances or drugs in blood or other body fluids. She originally applied RIA to study blood insulin levels in diabetes mellitus (1959), but the method soon found hundreds of other applications. In 1976 she became the first woman awarded the Albert Lasker Prize, and in 1977 she shared a Nobel Prize with Andrew V. Schally and Roger C.L. Guillemin.

Yalow, Rosalyn (b. Sussman) (1921– ) medical physicist; born in New York City. She earned her Ph.D. at the University of Illinois (1945) and taught at Hunter College (New York City) (1946–50). In association with Dr. Solomon A. Berson, she developed radioimmunoassay (RIA)—using radioactive "tracers" to measure minute amounts of hormones, antibodies, and other substances in the body. For her contributions to explaining the role of hormones in body chemistry, she shared the Nobel Prize in medicine (1977), only the second woman to receive the award in this field. She did her research at the Veterans Hospital in the Bronx (1950–80) and the City University of New York (1968–74).