Solomon Aaron Berson (April 22, 1918 – April 11, 1972) was an American

physician A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...

and

scientist A scientist is a person who Scientific method, researches to advance knowledge in an Branches of science, area of the natural sciences. In classical antiquity, there was no real ancient analog of a modern scientist. Instead, philosophers engag ...

whose discoveries, mostly together with

Rosalyn Yalow Rosalyn Sussman Yalow (July 19, 1921 – May 30, 2011) was an American medical physicist, and a co-winner of the 1977 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (together with Roger Guillemin and Andrew Schally) for development of the radioimmunoass ...

, caused major advances in clinical biochemistry.Rall JE. ''Solomon A. Berson''. In "Biographical Memoirs". National Academy of Sciences 1990;59:54-71.
Fulltext
Five years after Berson's death, Yalow received a

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; ; ) are awards administered by the Nobel Foundation and granted in accordance with the principle of "for the greatest benefit to humankind". The prizes were first awarded in 1901, marking the fifth anniversary of Alfred N ...

, which cannot be awarded posthumously, for their joint work on the radioimmunoassay.

Biography

Early life

Born in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, Berson was a keen musician and chess player. He graduated from the

City College of New York The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a Public university, public research university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York ...

in 1938. After failing to obtain a place in medical school he earned an MSc (1939) and an anatomy instructorship at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

before finally securing a place in NYU medical school in 1941. He completed his degree (

Alpha Omega Alpha Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society () is an honor society in the field of medicine. It has active chapters in 132 Liaison Committee on Medical Education, LCME-accredited medical schools in the United States and Lebanon. It annually elects ove ...

) in 1945, and after internships in

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

and two years in the army he returned to New York to do an

internal medicine Internal medicine, also known as general medicine in Commonwealth nations, is a medical specialty for medical doctors focused on the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of diseases in adults. Its namesake stems from "treatment of diseases of ...

residency at the

Bronx Veterans Administration Hospital The James J. Peters VA Medical Center (also known as the Bronx Veterans Hospital) is a US Department of Veterans Affairs hospital complex located at 130 West Kingsbridge Road in West Fordham, Bronx, Fordham, The Bronx, Bronx, New York City. The ...

Scientific career

Berson's scientific work started in 1950, when he became a member of the Radioisotope Service of the hospital, where he teamed with

in what eventually became an historic research partnership. He also set up a

thyroid The thyroid, or thyroid gland, is an endocrine gland in vertebrates. In humans, it is a butterfly-shaped gland located in the neck below the Adam's apple. It consists of two connected lobes. The lower two thirds of the lobes are connected by ...

service, where his approach was felt lastingly. Their early laboratory work concerned

iodine Iodine is a chemical element; it has symbol I and atomic number 53. The heaviest of the stable halogens, it exists at standard conditions as a semi-lustrous, non-metallic solid that melts to form a deep violet liquid at , and boils to a vi ...

and

human serum albumin Human serum albumin is the serum albumin found in human blood. It is the most abundant protein in human blood plasma; it constitutes about half of serum protein. It is produced in the liver. It is soluble in water, and it is monomeric. Albumin ...

metabolism, but later on in the decade they shifted their focus to

insulin Insulin (, from Latin ''insula'', 'island') is a peptide hormone produced by beta cells of the pancreatic islets encoded in humans by the insulin (''INS)'' gene. It is the main Anabolism, anabolic hormone of the body. It regulates the metabol ...

, a hormone which was difficult to measure in the blood. They developed the

radioimmunoassay A radioimmunoassay (RIA) is an immunoassay that uses radioactive tracer, radiolabeled molecules in a stepwise formation of immune complexes. A RIA is a very sensitive in vitro assay technique used to measure concentrations of substances, usually m ...

, which gave very good results, and published their findings in 1960. They were able to distinguish between two types of

diabetes Diabetes mellitus, commonly known as diabetes, is a group of common endocrine diseases characterized by sustained high blood sugar levels. Diabetes is due to either the pancreas not producing enough of the hormone insulin, or the cells of th ...

Type I Type 1 or Type I or ''variant'', may refer to: Health *Diabetes mellitus type 1 (also known as "Type 1 Diabetes"), insulin-dependent diabetes * Type I female genital mutilation * Type 1 personality *Type I hypersensitivity (or immediate hypersensit ...

and Type II, which have significantly different mechanisms. With the success of the insulin RIA, Berson and Yalow extended their success to other hormones, such as

corticotropin Adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH; also adrenocorticotropin, corticotropin) is a polypeptide tropic hormone produced by and secreted by the anterior pituitary gland. It is also used as a medication and diagnostic agent. ACTH is an important c ...

gastrin Gastrin is a peptide hormone that stimulates secretion of gastric acid (HCl) by the parietal cells of the stomach and aids in gastric motility. It is released by G cells in the pyloric antrum of the stomach, duodenum, and the pancreas. ...

parathyroid hormone Parathyroid hormone (PTH), also called parathormone or parathyrin, is a peptide hormone secreted by the parathyroid glands that regulates serum calcium and phosphate through its actions on the bone, kidneys, and small intestine. PTH incre ...

and

growth hormone Growth hormone (GH) or somatotropin, also known as human growth hormone (hGH or HGH) in its human form, is a peptide hormone that stimulates growth, cell reproduction, and cell regeneration in humans and other animals. It is thus important in ...

, making significant discoveries in their physiology along the way.

Death

In 1972, Berson died of a heart attack in

Atlantic City Atlantic City, sometimes referred to by its initials A.C., is a Jersey Shore seaside resort city in Atlantic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Atlantic City comprises the second half of the Atlantic City- Hammonton metropolitan sta ...

while attending a

FASEB The Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB), based in Rockville, Maryland, is a non-profit organization of scientific societies in the United States. With a focus on the biological and biomedical sciences, the federation r ...

meeting. Upon his death he was survived by his widow and two daughters. The Solomon A. Berson Medical Alumni Achievement Award was created in Berson's honor by

NYU School of Medicine The New York University Grossman School of Medicine is a medical school of New York University, a private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1841 and is one of two medical schools of the university, the other being the NYU Gr ...

Awards

Berson, usually together with Yalow, received numerous awards for his work. In 1968, he was elected Murray M. Rosenberg Professor and Chair of Medicine at

Mount Sinai School of Medicine The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMMS or Mount Sinai), formerly the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, is a private medical school in New York City, New York, United States. The school is the academic teaching arm of the Mount Sina ...

of the

City University of New York The City University of New York (CUNY, pronounced , ) is the Public university, public university system of Education in New York City, New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven ...

, enjoying great popularity. He also served on the editorial boards of several medical journals. He was elected to the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...

in 1972. In 1975 Berson and Yalow received the

AMA Scientific Achievement Award The AMA ''Scientific Achievement Award'' is awarded by American Medical Association. It may be given to either physicians or non-physician scientists who have contributed significantly to the field of medical science. The award itself consists ...

(Berson posthumously), and two years later Yalow received a

(which cannot be awarded posthumously) for their joint work on the radioimmunoassay.

References

External links

J. E. Rall, "Solomon A. Berson", Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences (1990)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Berson, Solomon American endocrinologists 1918 births 1972 deaths Military personnel from New York City Physicians from New York City Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Jewish American scientists New York University Graduate School of Arts and Science alumni Scientists from the Bronx 20th-century American Jews