Edgar Allen (May 2, 1892 – February 3, 1943) was an American anatomist and

physiologist Physiology (; ) is the scientific study of functions and mechanisms in a living system. As a sub-discipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ systems, individual organs, cells, and biomolecules carry out the chemical a ...

. He is known for the discovery of estrogen and his role in creating the field of endocrinology. Born on Cañon (Canyon) City, Colorado, Allen was educated at

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

. After serving in World War I he took a position at Washington University School of Medicine in 1919 until, in 1923, he was appointed to the chair of anatomy at the University of Missouri in

Columbia, Missouri Columbia is a city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It is the county seat of Boone County and home to the University of Missouri. Founded in 1821, it is the principal city of the five-county Columbia metropolitan area. It is Missouri's fourth ...

. Ten years later he was appointed to the chair at Yale University. At Missouri, he began his studies of sex hormones. While it was commonly believed at the time that the female reproductive cycle was controlled by substance in the ''

corpus luteum The corpus luteum (Latin for "yellow body"; plural corpora lutea) is a temporary endocrine structure in female ovaries involved in the production of relatively high levels of progesterone, and moderate levels of estradiol, and inhibin A. It is t ...

'', Allen sought the answer in the follicles surrounding the

ovum The egg cell, or ovum (plural ova), is the female reproductive cell, or gamete, in most anisogamous organisms (organisms that reproduce sexually with a larger, female gamete and a smaller, male one). The term is used when the female gamete is ...

, leading to his discovery of estrogen, though it was identified six years later by Adolf Butenandt in 1929. Allen died of a heart attack in 1943 while on duty with the United States Coast Guard.

References

External links

Biography of Edgar Allen on whonamedit.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Allen, Edgar American anatomists American physiologists Brown University alumni University of Missouri faculty Yale University faculty People from Cañon City, Colorado 1892 births 1943 deaths Washington University School of Medicine faculty

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