J. M. Robson

John Michael ‘Rab’ Robson
Born31 December 1900[1]
Belgium
Died18 February 1982(1982-02-18) (aged 81)
London, England
EducationUniversity of Leeds
Known forMutagenesis
Scientific career
Fieldsmedicine
genetics
WorkplacesUniversity of Edinburgh
Guy's Hospital Medical School
National Research Council of Canada

John Michael 'Rab' Rabinovich FRSE FRCS FRCSE LLD (1900–1982) [2]) was a geneticist who co-founded the science of mutagenesis by mutations in fruit flies exposed to mustard gas. He was Professor at Guy's Hospital Medical School.

Life

Born in Belgium to a Russian Jewish family on 31 December 1900 (according to the Royal Society of Edinburgh)[1], Rabinovich came prior to World War I in England, where he attended school in Leeds[2] and graduated with a BSc in 1925.[3]

In 1940, along with Charlotte Auerbach and A.J. Clark, he discovered that mustard gas could cause mutations in fruit flies, founding the science of mutagenesis.[4][2] He continued earlier research on sex hormones[5] when he moved to the Pharmacology Department of Guy's Hospital Medical School, London in 1946, but grew more interested in the similar effects of exposure to mustard gas with exposure to X-rays.[6] Robson's pharmacological research paved the way for the development of the contraceptive pill in the 1960s. While there he undertook research on the effects of gonadotrophins in pregnancy, and also supervised the Pregnancy Diagnosis Station that had been founded by the Institute's director Professor Francis Crew.

In 1932 he received an honorary doctorate (DSc) from the University of Edinburgh,[3] and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were Francis Albert Eley Crew, Bertold Wiesner, Alan William Greenwood, and Sir Edward Albert Sharpey-Schafer.[1]

In 1946 he moved to London as a Reader in Pharmacology at Guy's Hospital Medical School, and was given a professorship there in 1950.[3] Here he focussed upon endocrinology.[7]

He retired in 1968, and was made Emeritus Professor at Guys.[3] He died in London on 18 February 1982 aged 81.

Publications

  • Recent Advances in Sex and Reproductive Physiology (1934)
  • Recent Advances in Pharmacology (1950)

Family

Robson married Sarah Benjamin in September 1930 in Leeds.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002 (PDF). The Royal Society of Edinburgh. July 2006. ISBN 0-902-198-84-X. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 9 April 2018.
  2. 1 2 3 Beale, G (1 June 1993). "The discovery of mustard gas mutagenesis by Auerbach and Robson in 1941". Genetics. 134 (2): 393–399. doi:10.1093/genetics/134.2.393. ISSN 1943-2631. PMC 1205483. PMID 8325476.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Robson | JM | 1900-1982 | geneticist". NAHSTE. Archived from the original on 29 June 2011.
  4. ↑ Auerbach, C.; Robson, J. M. (9 March 1946). "Chemical Production of Mutations". Nature. 157 (3984): 302. Bibcode:1946Natur.157..302A. doi:10.1038/157302a0. ISSN 1476-4687. PMID 21017936. S2CID 4143417.
  5. ↑ Robson, J. M.; Wiesner, B. P. (20 November 1931). "The Causation of Mucification and Cornification in the Vagina of the Mouse". Quarterly Journal of Experimental Physiology. 21 (3): 217–225. doi:10.1113/expphysiol.1931.sp000534. ISSN 0370-2901.
  6. ↑ Robson, J. M. (15 September 1948). "The Electron Multiplier as a Counter for 10-Kev Protons". Review of Scientific Instruments. 19 (12): 865–871. Bibcode:1948RScI...19..865R. doi:10.1063/1.1741187. ISSN 0034-6748.
  7. ↑ "Robson, Professor John Michael". AIM25 - Archives in London and the M25 area. Retrieved 20 May 2022.
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