Michael Stuart Brown is a well-known American physician, geneticist and biochemist who, along with Joseph Goldstein, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1985 for his discovery of the method of controlling cholesterol metabolism. Find out more about the scientist’s life and the path to the discovery that brought him worldwide recognition at dallas1.one.
Education
Michael Stuart Brown was born in Brooklyn on April 13, 1941. At the age of eleven, the boy and his family relocated to Elkins Park, Pennsylvania. He received his secondary education at Cheltenham High School and then entered the University of Pennsylvania School of Arts and Sciences, where he focused mostly on the study of chemistry. In 1966, Michael Brown graduated from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and received his medical doctorate.
Meeting Joseph Goldstein
After finishing his studies, he went on to complete a residency in the Massachusetts General Hospital Department of Medicine, where he met Joseph L. Goldstein, who was also there for an internship. The young physicians quickly formed friendly relationships.
Michael and Joseph worked at the National Institutes of Health from 1968 to 1971. Michael acquired a job as a specialist consultant on gastroenterology and hereditary diseases. Later, he became more interested in metabolic processes and joined Earl R. Stadtman’s biochemistry laboratory.
The discovery that won the Nobel Prize
In 1971, Michael Brown relocated to Dallas and got a position at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, where Joseph Goldstein had once studied. Official scientific collaboration with Goldstein began in 1972. They began researching the processes of cholesterol metabolism and genetic factors that influence excessive cholesterol levels in the blood. The young physicians first worked in separate laboratories, but in 1974 they merged them. As a result of the study, they discovered low-density lipoprotein receptors, which are responsible for the excretion of cholesterol from the bloodstream into the cell.
Furthermore, scientists have discovered that a low number of these receptors is one of the causes of familial hypercholesterolemia, a hereditary illness in which excess cholesterol accumulates in the blood and tissues. Michael Brown and Joseph Goldstein also described receptor-mediated endocytosis, which is how cells absorb metabolites, hormones, proteins and other substances.
For this discovery, Michael Brown and Joseph Goldstein were awarded the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize from Columbia University in 1984, and in 1985 the scientists received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. In 1988, Michael Brown received the National Medal of Science for his contributions to medicine.
Following the award ceremony, Michael and Joseph resumed their studies. Dr. Brown went on to become a professor of molecular genetics and the head of the Johnson Center for Molecular Genetics. Joseph Goldstein became the chair of the Department of Molecular Genetics at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.
Significance of the discovery
The discovery of cellular receptors that interact with low—density lipoproteins has opened up new possibilities for the development of statins, which are cholesterol-lowering agents. As a result of this, it is now possible to lower the risk of heart disease, stroke and other cholesterol-related diseases. Statins are among the most frequently prescribed medications in American hospitals.