In 1977, Rosalyn Yalow won a share of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the development of radioimmunoassays of peptide hormones. Rosalyn Yalow, with her coworker Solomon Berson, In a series of brilliant, now classical papers between 1956-60 described the radioimmunological assay method (or RIA) in detail.

RIA brought about a revolution in biological and medical research. We have today at our disposal a large number of RIA-like procedures, so-called ligand methods, for determination of almost anything we wish to measure: peptide hormones, hormones that are not peptides, peptides that are not hormones, enzymes, viruses, antibodies, drugs of the most different kinds etc. This has brought about an enormous development in hitherto closed areas of research.

But Yalow’s contributions were not limited to presenting us with RIA. In a series of classical articles she and her coworkers, with the aid of RIA, were able to elucidate the physiology of the peptide hormones insulin, ACTH, growth hormone, and also to throw light upon the pathogenesis of diseases caused by abnormal secretion of these hormones.

Thus, they directed diabetes research into new tracks and gave it a new dimension. This was pioneering work at the highest level. It had an enormous impact. We were witnessing the birth of a new era in endocrinology, one that started with Yalow.

This modern endocrinology continues to develop and gives us continuously new outlooks on the causes and nature of diseases within the whole spectrum of medicine.