A Vital Legacy: The Jewish Contribution to The Health of Humanity

Aubrey Milunsky

[Bold print signifies the names of Jewish professors of medicine and science who were Nobel Laureates, their discoveries underlined]

Yeast, mice, flies, sea slugs, a one-millimeter worm. The Charlottesville hateful Neo-Nazi antisemitic mob and murderer [now serving a life sentence], the perpetrator of the Tree of Life Synagogue massacre [sentenced to death], the assassin of two Israeli Washington embassy staff, and the antisemitic Amsterdam rioters, are all certainly rooted in their blind ignorance of the facts that research using these lowly life forms benefitted their health and that of their families. Certain too, is their ignorance that their families have been the beneficiaries of remarkable Nobel Prize winning discoveries by Jewish physicians/scientists. Each one and their siblings were protected by the Polio vaccine from the scourge of poliomyelitis that could cause paralysis and death. Developed by the virologist Jonas Salk, millions of lives were saved or protected by his vaccine. He did not patent the vaccine nor did he seek any financial benefit from it, aiming rather to achieve worldwide distribution. Subsequent research by other Nobel Laureates included the discovery by immunologist Drew Weissman that enabled the development of effective mRNA vaccines, especially the Covid-19 vaccine that helped curb the recent pandemic. If any of these white nationalists, murderers or rioters were injured, they might have needed blood transfusions. They would be startled to learn they would not receive incompatible blood and yet again were being safeguarded by the work of Karl Landsteiner, a Jewish physician and immunologist who discovered the human blood groups. He converted from Judaism to Catholicism maintaining it was detrimental for his career to acknowledge the religion of his ancestors.

Indeed, we are all beneficiaries of the Nobel Prize winning research by Jewish physicians/scientists. Pause and think for a moment. Do you or your family members have or have had heart disease, cancer, diabetes, a genetic disorder, ever had an x-ray, a serious infection, or needed a highly sensitive laboratory test? The history of medicine is replete with the quintessential facts and insight.

               Countless lives were lost during and before World War II due to bacterial infections. Thankfully that has not been a problem since the discovery and use of Penicillin (1945) by scientists including the biochemist Ernst Chain. When the Nazis came to power, he realized that being Jewish, he was in danger and moved to England, receiving his Ph.D. at Cambridge. Bee and wasp stings and other insect bites, as well as medications such as Penicillin and other allergens, can cause anaphylaxis, with sudden collapse, shock, and death. Those suffering a first event will invariably not have epinephrine available (Epi-Pen) but will be saved by cortisone. Since the isolation of cortisone by the chemist Tadeus Reichstein and colleagues, many have benefited from its use, not only for a life-threatening anaphylactic episode, but also for a deadly asthma attack and a wide range of disorders affecting every organ in the body.

The bacterial disease, tuberculosis, one of the oldest diseases to affect humans, remains a major cause of death from an infectious disease among adults worldwide. About 10 million people are affected by tuberculosis each year. The discovery of streptomycin by microbiologist Selman Waksman and colleagues led to the first treatment of this disease and remains part of a multi-drug regimen.

Discovery of the Hepatitis C virus by physician virologist Harvey Alter led to the determination that this agent is the major cause of liver cancer. Novel anti-viral treatments were subsequently established and cures achieved with early diagnosis. Troubling is the realization that in the United States, over 40 percent of all adults with hepatitis C virus infection are unaware that they are affected. About 20 years earlier, the Hepatitis B virus was discovered by physician geneticist Baruch Blumberg assisted by Harvey Alter, then still a research fellow. A screening test followed that made it possible to prevent the spread of this virus from blood donations, and the first vaccine followed. It was said that he “prevented more cancer deaths than any person who ever lived.” He attended weekly Talmud discussion classes until his death. 

In 1997, the Nobel Prize was awarded for the remarkable identification of an infectious agent comprised of only a single protein, then called a prion, by neurologist and biochemist Stanley Prusiner. This self-reproducing infectious pathogen, the first in a class of prion diseases, caused transmissible spongiform encephalopathies that caused holes in the brain of victims resulting in fatal degenerative brain disease.

Infections of all types threaten and challenge our ability to withstand bacterial, viral, and other pathogens. The fundamental mechanisms of our body’s innate ability to resist infection rest upon multiple factors, but especially on how our immune system works or fails, as described by the Russian zoologist Elie Metchnikoff. This work was regarded as the foundation of the science of immunology. Who knew, for example, that a certain unusual looking cell, called dendritic, had a commanding function in the immune system to fight infections. Ralph Steinman discovered the dendritic cells which he showed linked innate to adaptive immunity (cells with memory from a previous infection). Sadly, he died from pancreatic cancer three days before the Nobel Prize announcement. And further, the tiny structures on the surface of specific white blood cells (T and B) have such a significant role in the immune system.

Our bodies ward off the infections by virtue of our immune system. Discoveries as to how these systems work, were achieved by very basic experimental work. Immunologist and geneticist Bruce Beutler working with mice, discovered the endotoxin that triggered an innate immune response. Between the ages of 14-18 years, due to his intense interest in biology, he worked in his father’s laboratory assaying enzymes and isolating proteins. The French biologist Jules Hoffmann became very interested in insects, also influenced by his biologist father. No surprise then, that he used grasshoppers and flies as model organisms to discover how these insects protect themselves from infection by innate immunity. He became Commander of the Legion of Honour.

Those affected by lymphoma and other cancers would come to know much about their immune system. Beyond warding off infections, our lifetime immuno-surveillance system also suppresses cancer growth. Discovery of clock genes and the molecular machinery controlling Circadian Rhythm (our body’s internal clock) was accomplished by geneticist and chronobiologist Michael Rosbash using fruit flies. Clock genes in addition to our sleep/wake cycle, were shown to regulate the anti-cancer immune function of certain cells. Indeed, that system is also responsible for the production of antibodies, the structures of which were discovered by physician and neurobiologist Gerald Edelman. Good thing that he decided not to become a concert violinist!  Antibodies help fight infections but may also turn inward and damage our own organs, causing autoimmune disorders, such as hypothyroidism, lupus, diabetes, and multiple sclerosis.

The reason why one cannot receive an organ for transplantation simply from anyone, is the presence of proteins on the cell surface of immune cells that lead to the distinction of self and non-self. The responsible genes discovered by physician Baruj Benacerraf produce proteins termed the histocompatibility complex, the use of which allows us to match with a donor to have transplants and not suffer a rejection.

Advances in immunology took a giant leap forward when biochemist Cesar Milstein discovered the principle for production of single antibodies, called monoclonal antibodies. These were isolated, then cloned, and used with exquisite specificity to target and treat a wide range of diseases, including breast, melanoma, and other cancers, osteoporosis, and COVID infections. This discovery in turn enabled and stimulated the development of a range of medications that now each target a specific disease.

We all have had [or will have] diagnostic medical tests. Chemical elements called isotopes, such as cobalt, to which radioactive tags are attached, were discovered by radiochemist George de Hevesy. Radioactive tracers can be attached to chemical elements as tags for diagnosis of metabolic disorders or for treatment. During the war, worried that the Nazis would confiscate his Nobel medal, he dissolved it in a mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acid. He left the solution on a laboratory shelf. After the war he recovered the dissolved gold solution, precipitated the gold out of the acid, and returned it to the Nobel Foundation who recast the medal. The second woman to win a Nobel Prize, physicist Rosalyn Yalow, developed the radioimmunoassay using radioactive isotopes to measure tiny amounts of hormones and other substances, such as insulin in the blood, with great accuracy. Radioactive isotopes are also extremely valuable as diagnostic tracers for multiple disorders, including cancers of the thyroid, bone marrow, liver, and lungs, and for detecting metastases. As an assistant in the physics department at the University of Illinois she was the only woman among a faculty of 400. Prior to that challenge, in New York, she was hired by a biochemist who insisted she become a stenographer.

In their lifetime, virtually all people in the Western world will have had one diagnostic X-ray. Some will have needed a CAT scan (computed axial tomography), exposure to which results in significant radiation, which is why repetitive CAT scans are avoided when possible. This stems from the discovery by geneticist Hermann Muller that radiation can cause mutations in genes that not only result in cancers, but can be transmitted if egg and sperm cells are exposed. His seminal work was with fruit flies (Drosophila). With war on the horizon in 1937, he moved to Edinburgh with about 250 strains of Drosophila.

Over the past 50 years, knowledge about DNA, its messenger RNA and microRNA, has exploded, lending clarity to how our cells are regulated, grow, move, and die, discovered by physician scientist Sydney Brenner and colleagues using c. elegans (the 1mm roundworm) [Figure 1].

Figure 1: The Roundworm: c. elegans, that yielded crucial understanding of how cells are regulated grow, move and die.

In 2024 Syndey Brenner and colleagues discovered how our cells with the same set of genes develop into different types, such as muscle and nerve cells. He was one of my teachers in medical school, established the roundworm as a model organism that enabled many discoveries in molecular biology. He was admitted to university in South Africa at age 15, determined to be too young to graduate as a physician, and directed to complete degrees in science before completing medical school. From that tiny worm, he and his colleagues discovered programmed cell death [called apoptosis] that followed a biochemical instruction from DNA in those cells. We learned that the normal physiological process always involves cells that grow and die. When apoptosis does not work normally, cells may grow out of control and progress to some cancers. Biologist H. Robert Horvitz working with Sydney Brenner, demonstrated the genetic regulation of organ development. Professor of genetics, Gary Ruvkun discovered micro-RNA which are small molecules that regulate gene expression by controlling the production of proteins. This work led to further recognition of genes that regulate aging and metabolism.

Ribosomes are minute particles made in the nucleus and found floating in the fluid (cytoplasm) around the nucleus of all cells. They function by binding and transferring messages that link amino acids together to form proteins. The discovery of the structure and function of ribosomes as the body’s “protein factory” was by Israeli crystallographer Ada Yonath, the first woman in the Middle East to win a Nobel Prize in the sciences. She demonstrated the modes of action of over 20 antibiotics and illuminated mechanisms of drug resistance and synergism. Her seminal work led to the discovery by pharmacologist biochemist Alfred Gilman of how certain proteins control communications in cells. That revelation led molecular endocrinologist Martin Rodbell to discover G-proteins which controlled how cells receive and communicate.

Neurobiologist Rita Levi-Montalcini determined how cell growth and development are regulated, while biochemist Stanley Cohen discovered nerve growth factor as the main protein responsible for the growth of neurons in the nervous system. That discovery has been fundamental to understanding the development of cancer and the design of anti-cancer drugs. Levi-Montalcini’s discovery demonstrated that the nervous, immune and endocrine systems are linked, with profound implications for understanding neurodegenerative diseases. When the Nazis occupied Italy in 1943, using a fake identity, she was protected by non-Jewish friends. Biochemist James Rothman showed how hormones and growth factors are transported in cells, via tiny vesicles. Defects in this process lead to various disorders including diabetes and botulism. All this research informed our understanding of the genetics of certain birth defects, cancers, their known linkage, and risks.

Figure 2: The DNA Helix, so simple, so complex, the basis of physical life

Recognition of the helical structure of DNA [Figure 2] initiated the golden era of genetics. Sadly, this brings to mind the work of a Jewish chemist, Rosalind Franklin, who was an X-ray crystallographer. She first photographed the helical structure of DNA but was overlooked by the Nobel committee. Her student showed the photograph, without permission to Maurice Wilkins who in turn showed it to James Watson. The two went on to win the Nobel Prize! The critical work that followed enabled identification of the precise structure of DNA and how it is transcribed and synthesized, by Roger Kornberg. This work led to the discovery of single genes with mutations that caused well known diseases (e.g., cystic fibrosis, sickle cell disease, and many more). There are over 7,000 rare genetic disorders. Sequencing of the human genome followed.

The exquisite research focus on DNA and its messenger RNA by all the following professors yielded amazing discoveries that included all of the following: virus reproduction based upon bacteria infected by virus, work which captured the attention and different Nobel prizes for all these remarkable scientists; Howard Temin (geneticist and virologist) and David Baltimore (biologist) at 37 years of age, who, in turn, helped establish the science of genetic engineering; the genetic control of enzyme synthesis by Francois Jacob (biologist) and Andre Lwoff; the genetic codes that translate the building blocks (amino acids) into proteins, by Marshall Nirenberg (biochemist and geneticist) and Sir Hans Krebs (physician, biologist and biochemist); the ability of viral RNA to insert into the DNA of cells by Salvador Luria (a microbiologist), who endorsed my very first book, Know Your Genes; the mechanism of gene silencing by Andrew Fire (biologist and geneticist); genes that regulate organ development and apoptosis by Emil Fischer (biochemist); the chemical process of how genes can fail to control cell growth and differentiation, resulting in cancer. Harold Varmus discovered cancer causing genes (oncogenes). He was rejected twice by Harvard Medical School, entered Columbia, and went on to a spectacular career in science and leadership. For a short period, he worked as a missionary in India. Additional was the discovery of enzymes that cut the genes into fragments that enable disease gene discovery by Daniel Nathans (microbiologist) and have set the stage for gene therapy.

Today, diagnostic tests enable analyses of single genes for many genetic disorders. In addition, large specific gene panels [such as a comprehensive cancer gene panel] are available, and a huge swath of coding genes can be analyzed simultaneously [called whole exome sequencing], facilitating diagnosis of the cause of neurodevelopmental and many other genetic disorders. Whole genome sequencing has also become clinically available. Even screening for fetal cells extracted from a mother’s blood is now routinely used for detection of chromosomal or single gene diseases.

Heart disease is the most common cause of mortality in the United States. The protective value of aspirin is well known. The discovery of how aspirin works [by inhibiting a prostaglandin enzyme] by Sir John Vane (pharmacologist) led to its daily use to prevent heart attacks, saving millions of lives. This discovery also laid the foundation for the development of medications for hypertension. Most of us have heard about cholesterol and its contribution to fatal heart attacks. Biochemist Konrad Bloch elucidated the regulation of cholesterol in the body. Michael Brown and Joseph Goldstein, both physician geneticists, discovered that human cells have low-density lipoprotein (LDL) receptors that remove cholesterol from blood, and when insufficient, hypercholesterolemia occurs. Their work provided the basis for the development of statin medications. Their work led to the development of statin drugs taken by more than 200 million people worldwide. Millions have been protected and saved from heart attacks and strokes.

The first woman to win a Nobel Prize in medicine was physician scientist Gerty Cori (in 1947), who figured out how sugar was stored in muscle and metabolized in the body. That finding has direct relevance to the diagnosis and treatment of a glycogen storage disease, also involving the heart. She worked and published with her husband for many years on carbohydrate metabolism. While at Roswell Park Cancer Institute in New York, the director threatened to dismiss her if she did not cease working with her husband. She did not!

Discussion of heart disease and the potential threat of sudden chest pain [angina] due to blocked arteries, raises the question of how pain is transmitted. An understanding of the chemical transmission of nerve impulses was determined about a century ago by Otto Loewsi (physician-pharmacologist). When Germany invaded Austria, he was arrested with his two sons and held for three months. The condition for release was to relinquish all his positions including his research, to the Nazis. His work was further embellished by studies showing how neurotransmitters work in the nervous system by neuroscientist Paul Greengard. He used his Nobel Prize money to fund the Pearl Meister Greengard Prize for women scientists named for his mother who died during childbirth. Further Nobel prize-winning work on neurotransmitters was done by biochemist Julius Axelrod and Sir Bernard Katz (physician and biophysicist). Notwithstanding the fact that Axelrod’s application to multiple medical schools failed, he won a Nobel prize. He lost his sight in one eye when an ammonia bottle exploded in the laboratory. The critical role of synapses (nerve junctions) in memory and learning was discovered by psychiatrist and neuroscientist Eric Kandel. He used the slug, Aplysia, to demonstrate the biological mechanism of memory storage and synaptic connections that are modified by learning [Figure 3].

Figure 3: Model organisms from which remarkable discoveries were made that impacted the health of humanity (fruit fly, mouse, sea slug, grasshopper).

He shed light on connectivity, of special relevance to disorders such as autism and schizophrenia. Transmitted pain in the calf muscles, especially following exercise, by physician and biochemist Otto Myerhof, was shown to arise as a consequence of the relationship of accumulating lactic acid and oxygen to muscle. His seminal work on glycolysis (conversion of glucose to pyruvate and lactate) was considered the paradigm of metabolic pathways and since called the Embden-Meyerhof pathway. When Jews in Germany were being expelled from university facilities, he escaped the Nazis by moving to France and then USA. Beyond pain receptors were the discoveries of receptors for temperature and touch by physiologist David Julius who initially used certain mushrooms to study how organisms from nature interact with human receptors. More than a thousand nasal receptors as the basis for our sense of smell were discovered by physician and molecular biologist Richard Axel. He discovered a technique to insert foreign DNA into a host cell to produce certain proteins. The resulting patent by Columbia University earned almost $100 million! The transmission of what we see to the brain is via the cells of the retina. Biologist George Wald discovered the light sensitive protein, rhodopsin, partly derived from vitamin A, in the rod cells of the retina. Rhodopsin converts light into electrical signals that the brain interprets as vision. Mutations in Rhodopsin result in genetic disorders with blindness. He showed that Vitamin A was a key component of the retina which explained its role in embryonic formation of our eyes, as well night-blindness and blindness. The integrity of our inner-ear structures enables balance control. Discovery of the vestibular apparatus that allows us to maintain balance was achieved by physician otologist Robert Barany who injected cold and hot water into the ear canal observing vertigo and nystagmus (involuntary eye movements), affecting the endolymph in the inner ear. He was in a Russian prisoner of war camp (1914) when the Nobel Prize was awarded.

Prevention, avoidance, and treatment of heart disease, cancer, infectious disease, serious to fatal disease, birth defects, disorders of the immune stem, and blood group incompatibility have been some of the subjects in focus here, and for which Jewish physicians and scientists, all professors, have been awarded Nobel Prizes. To this brief list can be added quintessential discoveries in vital body chemistry and metabolism as well.

The Jewish people from time immemorial have been dedicated to scholarship and education. This short precis focuses on Nobel Prizes in Physiology or Medicine, but does not reflect the many Nobel prizes awarded to other Jewish Scientists, Economists, Scholars, and Leaders for Physics, Economics, Literature, and Peace. Acknowledgement is emphasized here of the role of non-Jewish Physicians and Scientists who shared specific Nobel Prizes with their Jewish colleagues.

Jews constitute about 0.2 percent of the world’s population but have won some 26 percent of all Nobel prizes. Antisemites and their families have had their lives saved and health protected by the work of many Jewish physicians and scientists. Long overdue is the time to appreciate, celebrate, and be thankful for these remarkable contributions, to educate all about the facts, and to cherish the Jewish people.