Rosalyn Yalow Interview Essay

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Interview: 2004?

In 1977, Dr. Rosalyn Yalow became a co-winner for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the development of the radioimmunoassay (RIA). Unfortunately, her colleague, Solomon Berson, passed away before he could receive his share of the prize. At an early age, Yalow was mostly interested in mathematics and chemistry. However, when she began her studies at Hunter Women’s College in New York, she became fascinated by physics and completed her graduate studies at the University of Illinois. In 1945, she received her Ph.D. in Nuclear Physics at the University of Illinois. Yalow became very skilled in designing apparatus for measuring radioactive substance due to the focus of her research on nuclear physics. She has kindly agreed to this interview in hopes of enlightening future researchers.

Thank you for joining us today, Dr. Yalow. Can you tell us a bit about RIA and what led you to develop it?

RIA is a binding assay which uses radioisotopes to measure the amount of antigen in a sample. Solomon and I developed RIA while studying insulin. Prior to our work, it was widely believed that diabetes was caused by a deficiency in insulin secretion. However, we disproved this theory by developing a radioisotopic technique to study antibody-antigen reactions. Using radiolabelled insulin, we found that insulin degradation was slower in patients who had previously received exogenous insulin as part of treatment for diabetes or schizophrenia. We hypothesized that the slower degradation was caused by the binding of insulin to antibodies produced in response to the exogenous insulin treatment. However, there was no existing technique at the time that was sensitive and specific enough to allow us to detect the small amount ...

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...exploring ideas that interest you. We need more scientists who are willing to go against the grain and challenge our current understandings of the world. This is how scientific discoveries are born.

Allergy application of RIA
The radioallergosorbent test (RAST) is an RIA test that allows for the detection and quantification of IgE antibodies. During the test, a possible allergen is bound to insoluble material and a sample of the patient’s blood is added. If the blood sample contains antibodies specific to that allergen, the antibodies will bind to that allergen. Anti-human radiolabeled IgE antibodies are then added and bind only to the antibodies already bound to the insoluble material. The whole sample is then wThe unbound anti-human antibodies are washed away and the level of radioactivity is proportional to the amount of human IgE present in the blood sample.

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