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

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

and

scientist A scientist is a person who conducts Scientific method, scientific research 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, ...

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 radioimmunoassay ...

, caused major advances in

clinical biochemistry Clinical chemistry (also known as chemical pathology, clinical biochemistry or medical biochemistry) is the area of chemistry that is generally concerned with analysis of bodily fluids for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. It is an applied ...

.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 ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...

, 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 or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, 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 within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York City. Founded in 1847, Cit ...

in 1938. After failing to obtain a place in medical school he earned an

MSc MSC may refer to: Computers * Message Sequence Chart * Microelectronics Support Centre of UK Rutherford Appleton Laboratory * MIDI Show Control * MSC Malaysia (formerly known as Multimedia Super Corridor) * USB mass storage device class (USB MSC ...

(1939) and an anatomy instructorship at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

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. Alpha Omega Alpha currently has active Chapters in 132 LCME- accredited medical schools in the United States and Lebanon. It annually elects over 4,000 new ...

) in 1945, and after internships in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

and two years in the army he returned to New York to do an internal medicine 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, New York City. The hospital is the headquar ...

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 in the neck and consists of two connected lobes. The lower two thirds of the lobes are connected by a thin band of tissue called the thyroid isthmus. The thy ...

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

iodine Iodine is a chemical element with the symbol I and atomic number 53. The heaviest of the stable halogens, it exists as a semi-lustrous, non-metallic solid at standard conditions 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 ''INS'' gene. It is considered to be the main anabolic hormone of the body. It regulates the metabolism o ...

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

radioimmunoassay A radioimmunoassay (RIA) is an immunoassay that uses 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 measuring antigen conc ...

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

diabetes Diabetes, also known as diabetes mellitus, is a group of metabolic disorders characterized by a high blood sugar level ( hyperglycemia) over a prolonged period of time. Symptoms often include frequent urination, increased thirst and increased ap ...

, Type I 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 Peptide, polypeptide tropic hormone produced by and secreted by the Anterior pituitary, anterior pituitary gland. It is also used as a Adrenocorticotropic hormone ...

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. Gastrin ...

parathyroid hormone Parathyroid hormone (PTH), also called parathormone or parathyrin, is a peptide hormone secreted by the parathyroid glands that regulates the serum calcium concentration through its effects on bone, kidney, and intestine. PTH influences bone re ...

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 h ...

, making significant discoveries in their physiology along the way.

Death

In 1972, Berson died of a heart attack in

Atlantic City Atlantic City, often known by its initials A.C., is a coastal resort city in Atlantic County, New Jersey, United States. The city is known for its casinos, Boardwalk (entertainment district), boardwalk, and beaches. In 2020 United States censu ...

while attending a

FASEB The Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) is a non-profit organization that is the principal umbrella organization of U.S. societies in the field of biological and medical research. This organization organizes academi ...

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 NYU 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, with the other being the Long Island School o ...

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. It is the academic teaching arm of the Mount Sinai Health System, which manages eigh ...

of the

City University of New York The City University of New York ( CUNY; , ) 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 Upper divis ...

, 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, 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 Nati ...

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

{{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 alumni Scientists from the Bronx 20th-century American Jews