Israel Lyon Chaikoff


Israel Lyon Chaikoff was a Canadian-American physiologist and biochemist, known for the Wolff–Chaikoff effect. He and his colleagues were pioneers in the use of radioactive iodine to investigate thyroid function.
As a boy, he immigrated with his family to Canada. At the University of Toronto, he graduated with B.A. in 1924, M.A. in 1925, Ph.D. in 1927, and M.D. in 1930. At the University of California, Berkeley's department of physiology, he was an instructor from 1930 to 1931, an assistant Professor from 1931 to 1938, an associate professor from 1938 to 1942, and a full professor from 1942 until his death.
Chaikoff did research on the physiological biochemistry of blood transport involved in lipid and carbohydrate metabolism and metabolic disturbances associated with diabetes and vascular disease. He used radioactive phosphorus to investigate phospholipid metabolism. He used radioactive carbon to investigate lipogenesis and the biosynthesis and utilization of fatty acids, sterol-containing metabolites, glucose, glycogen, adrenal steroids, and thyroid hormones.
Chaikoff was a Guggenheim Fellow for the academic year 1941–1942. He was the author or co-author of over 400 articles, which were published in many different journals, including Journal of Biological Chemistry, Proceedings of the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine, American Journal of Physiology, Journal of Nutrition, The American Journal of Pathology, Annual Review of Biochemistry, Journal of Clinical Investigation, Science, Endocrinology, Cancer Research, Biochimica et Biophysica Acta, and Nature.
In 1949 he married Isabelle A. Rawls. U. C. Berkeley's Department of Molecular & Cell Biology established the I.L. Chaikoff Memorial Award in his honor.