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Edward DoisyReceived the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1943, jointly with Henrik Dam
Date of Birth: 13.11.1893
Country:  USA |
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Biography of Edward Doisy
Early Life and EducationEdward Adelbert Doisy was born in Hume, Illinois to Ada (Alley) Doisy and Edward Perez Doisy, a French-American traveling salesman. He attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he pursued his scientific interests, participated in sports competitions, and was a member of student scientific societies. In 1914, he received a bachelor's degree, and two years later, he obtained a master's degree in humanities. From 1914 to 1917, Doisy worked as a lecturer in biochemistry at Harvard Medical School. After the United States entered World War I in 1917, Doisy underwent military medical training at the Rockefeller Institute and then served as a junior lieutenant in the U.S. Army Medical Corps at Walter Reed Hospital for two years. Upon his discharge from military service, Doisy returned to Harvard to conduct research for his doctoral degree under the guidance of Otto Folin.
Academic Career
In 1919, after becoming a professor of biochemistry at the medical school of the University of Washington, Doisy earned his Ph.D. degree in 1920 and was appointed as a faculty member at the university. In 1922, he became an adjunct professor, and in 1923, a full professor at the medical school of Washington University in St. Louis, where he also became the head of the biochemistry department. In 1951, he was appointed as a distinguished professor, and in 1965, he was awarded the title of emeritus professor. Throughout his career, Doisy's research interests included topics such as blood buffer systems, carbon dioxide transport, lactate levels in muscles, nervous tissue, antibiotics, and the purification of insulin and chorionic gonadotropin (a substance found in the human placenta).
Discovery of Vitamin K
In 1936, after Danish biochemist Henrik Dam announced the discovery of vitamin K and its ability to prevent bleeding by increasing blood clotting, Doisy and his colleagues Sidney Thayer, Stephen Linkogle, Ralph Mac-Kee, and David V. Cokendale began studying the chemical structure of vitamin K. The results of their two-year research proved ineffective due to the degradation of vitamin activity under light. They spent an additional year experimenting with protective measures to prevent the light-sensitive vitamin from being destroyed, leading to the identification of two different active forms of vitamin K: K, derived from lucerne, and K2, derived from fishmeal. Doisy and his colleagues also synthesized vitamin K3, called menadione (a synthetic analogue of vitamin K called vicassol is used in our country). Menadione was found to be twice as potent as natural vitamin K and is used in clinics. Although vitamin K was simultaneously synthesized and purified in other laboratories in the United States, Washington University obtained the patent for menadione. The pharmaceutical company "Park-Davis & Company" financed Doisy's experiments in collaboration with the university, which serves as an example of the relationship between industrial firms and scientific institutions in conducting research. Vitamin K is essential for the synthesis of prothrombin, a blood clotting factor. The introduction of vitamin K saved the lives of many individuals, including patients with blocked bile ducts who often died from bleeding during surgery. Vitamin K is also necessary for infants with prothrombin deficiency, who were at high risk of fatal bleeding.
Nobel Prize and Later Life
For his discovery of the chemical structure of vitamin K, Doisy was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1943, which he shared with Henrik Dam. Due to the ongoing Second World War, the Nobel Prize ceremony in Stockholm did not take place, and the prize was presented to Doisy and Dam by the Swedish ambassador to the United States at a special ceremony in New York in 1944. Doisy did not deliver a Nobel lecture. In 1918, Doisy married Alice Acree, a schoolteacher. They had four sons, one of whom, Richard Joseph Doisy, also became a biologist. In addition to his scientific research and academic duties, Doisy served on the Standardization Committee for Sex Hormones of the League of Nations from 1932 to 1935 and was a member of the Biology and Medicine Committee of the Atomic Energy Commission.
Doisy passed away from heart disease in St. Louis on October 23, 1986. Among his numerous awards, Doisy received the Willard Gibbs Medal from the American Chemical Society (1941), the Swibb Award from the American Society of Infectious Diseases (1944), and the Barron Medal (1972). He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Society of Biochemists, the Endocrine Society, and the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine. Doisy received honorary degrees from the University of Washington, Washington University in St. Louis, Yale University, the University of Chicago, the University of Illinois, and the University of Paris.
