Born: 19 July 1921, New York, NY, USA
Died: 30 May 2011, New York, NY, USA
Affiliation at the time of the award: Veterans Administration Hospital, Bronx, NY, USA
Prize motivation: "for the development of radioimmunoassays of peptide hormones"
Field: diagnostic techniques, endocrinology, metabolism
Prize share: 1/2
Rosalyn Yalow was a nuclear physicist. She developed radioimmunoassay (RIA) together with doctor Solomon Berson. RIA is used to measure small concentrations of substances in the body, such as hormones in the blood. Yalow and Berson tracked insulin by injecting radioactive iodine into patients' blood. Because the method is so precise, they were able to prove that type 2 diabetes is caused by the body's inefficient use of insulin. Previously it was thought that the disease was caused by a lack of insulin.
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