The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1985
Awarded on: 1985-10-14
"for their discoveries concerning the regulation of cholesterol metabolism"
Affiliations:
- University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas – Dallas, TX, USA
Joseph L. Goldstein
Born: 1940-04-18 in Sumter, SC, USA
Gender: male
Field: American biochemist
Biography
Joseph Leonard Goldstein ForMemRS is an American biochemist. He received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1985, along with fellow University of Texas Southwestern researcher, Michael Brown, for their studies regarding cholesterol. They discovered that human cells have low-density lipoprotein (LDL) receptors that remove cholesterol from the blood and that when LDL receptors are not present in sufficient numbers, individuals develop hypercholesterolemia and become at risk for cholesterol related diseases, notably coronary heart disease. Their studies led to the development of statin drugs.