Izrael Hieger DSc (London) (13 June 1901 – 14 October 1986) was a biochemist whose work focused on carcinogenesis. He discovered the first known organic carcinogenic compound. In 1937 Hieger, with colleagues Ernest Kennaway and J. W. Cook, was nominated for a Nobel Prize for work on isolating chemical carcinogenic agents from tar and studies on the relation between chemical constitution and carcinogenic activity.

Early life

Hieger was born in Siedlce, Russian Empire (present Republic of Poland), and was the youngest of nine. Preempting the

pogrom A pogrom () is a violent riot incited with the aim of massacring or expelling an ethnic or religious group, particularly Jews. The term entered the English language from Russian to describe 19th- and 20th-century attacks on Jews in the Russia ...

of 1906, Heiger's parents emigrated with the younger children, settling in London. There he attended

Christ's College, Finchley Christ's College is a secondary school with academy status in East Finchley, London, United Kingdom. It falls under the London Borough of Barnet Local Education Authority for admissions. Since September 2018, Christ’s College Finchley has off ...

, going on to study at Birkbeck, University of London and

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

. Heiger married Esther (née Bull), and although not a member, financially assisted a Trotskyist group in London run by

C.L.R. James Cyril Lionel Robert James (4 January 1901 – 31 May 1989),Fraser, C. Gerald, ''The New York Times'', 2 June 1989. who sometimes wrote under the pen-name J. R. Johnson, was a Trinidadian historian, journalist and Marxist. His works are in ...

, of which Esther and her future husband

Earle Birney Earle Alfred Birney (13 May 1904 – 3 September 1995) was a Canadian poet and novelist, who twice won the Governor General's Award, Canada's top literary honour, for his poetry. Life Born in Calgary, Alberta, and raised on a farm in Eri ...

were a part. Their marriage ended in 1936. In 1943, Hieger married social worker, painter and poet Lois (née Peirson). They had one daughter.

Career

In 1924 Hieger joined Kennaway at the Cancer Hospital Research Institute (CHRI). In pioneering work with W. V. Mayneord, the hospital's medical physicist, Hieger discovered the first known organic carcinogenic compound. Exploiting a method of fluorescence spectroscopy indicated similar spectra for carcinogenic tars and 1,2-

benzanthracene Benz 'a''nthracene or benzo 'a''nthracene is a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon with the chemical formula C18H12. It is produced during incomplete combustion of organic matter. Benz 'a''nthracene is one of carcinogenic constituents of tobacco sm ...

and related

polyaromatic hydrocarbons A polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) is a class of organic compounds that is composed of multiple aromatic rings. The simplest representative is naphthalene, having two aromatic rings and the three-ring compounds anthracene and phenanthrene. P ...

(PAHs). In 1931 Hieger painstakingly obtained 7 g of crystalline hydrocarbon from two tonnes of gas-works soft pitch. This was identified as 3:4- benzo(a)pyrene, and highly carcinogenic. The discovery confirmed concerns over the correlation between occupational cancers and industries which involved exposure to tar, coal-gas and synthetic dyes In 1939, Hieger and four colleagues, ( Kennaway, Mayneord, J. W. Cook and C. L. Hewett) were awarded the first Anna Fuller Memorial Prize for cancer research."Cancer Research"
1952;12:454

Published works

Books

*I. Hieger, ''One in six: An outline of the cancer problem'', 1955 *I. Hieger, ''Carcinogenesis'', 1961

Papers

*I. Hieger, ''On the Alleged Action of X-rays upon Cholesterol'', ‘’Biochemical Journal’’ 21, pp407-11, 1927 *I. Hieger, ''The Influence of Dilution on the Carcinogenic Effect of Tar'', ‘’The Journal of Pathology’’, V.32 (3), pp419-23, 1929 *I. Hieger, ''The Spectra of Cancer-Producing Tars and Oils and of Related Substances'', ‘’Biochemical Journal’’ 24, pp505-11, 1930 *I. Hieger, Ernest Kennaway ''Carcinogenic Substances and their Fluorescence Spectra'', ‘’The British Medical Journal’’, 1930 *I. Hieger, H. Burrows, E. Kennaway ''The Experimental Production of Tumours of Connective Tissue'', ‘’American Journal of Cancer’’ 16, pp56-67, 1932 *I. Hieger, J. W. Cook, C. L. Hewett ''The Isolation of a Cancer-producing Hydrocarbon from Coal Tar Parts 1, 2 and 3'', ‘’Journal of the Chemical Society (Resumed)’’, pp395-405, 1933 *I. Hieger, ‘’American Journal of Cancer’’ 29, pp705-14, 1937 *I. Hieger, ‘’American Journal of Cancer’’ 39, pp496-503, 1940 *I. Hieger, ''Carcinogenic Substances in Human Tissue'', ‘’Cancer Research’’, V.6 pp657-67, 1946 *I. Hieger, ''Carcinogenic Activity of Preparations rich in Cholesterol'', ‘’Nature’’, V.160, pp270-71, 1947 *I. Hieger, ''Progress of Cancer Research'', ‘’Nature’’, 1948 *I. Hieger, ''Carcinogenic Activity of Lipoid Substances'', ‘’British Journal of Cancer’’, V.3, pp123-39, 1949 *I. Hieger, ''On the Transmission of Mouse Tumours by Dried Tumour Tissue'', ‘’Acta Unio Internationalis Contra Cancrum’’, V.7 (2), p259-62, Geneva, Switzerland, 1951 *I. Hieger and S.F.D.Orr, ''On the Carcinogenic Activity of Purified Cholesterol'', ‘’British Journal of Cancer’’, V.8 (2), pp274-90, 1954 *I. Hieger, ''Cholesterol as a Carcinogen'', ‘’Proceedings of the Royal Society’’, B (Biological Sciences), V. 147, pp84-8, 1957 *I. Hieger, ''Cholesterol Carcinogenesis'', ‘’British Medical Bulletin’’, V.14, pp159-160, 1958 *I. Hieger, ''Carcinogenesis of Cholesterol'', ‘’British Journal of Cancer’’V.8 (3), pp439-51, 1959 *I. Hieger, ‘’Acta Unio Internationalis Contra Cancrum’’, V.15, p603, Geneva, Switzerland, 1960 *I. Hieger, ''Cholesterol as Carcinogen- I. Sarcoma Induction by Cholesterol in a Sensitive Strain of Mice'', ‘’British Journal of Cancer’’, V.16 (4), pp716-21, 1962 *I. Hieger, ''Studies in Carcinogenesis'', ‘’British Journal of Cancer’’, 1965.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hieger, Izrael 1901 births 1986 deaths British biochemists People educated at Christ's College, Finchley