Edward Doisy: The Biochemist Who Isolated Vitamin K

On November thirteenth, eighteen ninety-three, Edward Adelbert Doisy was born in Hume, Illinois, USA. He was a biochemist, and his academic field was biochemistry and hormone research.

Doisy is best known for his pioneering work in isolating and identifying vitamin K, an essential vitamin necessary for blood coagulation (clotting). In the nineteen-thirties, he worked on purifying and characterizing this fat-soluble factor from alfalfa and fish meal. Through meticulous chemical work, he not only managed to isolate the vitamin in pure form but also determined its chemical structure. This discovery was crucial for understanding and treating bleeding disorders caused by vitamin K deficiency, especially in newborns. For this work, Edward Doisy was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in nineteen thirty-four, jointly with Henrik Dam who had discovered the vitamin. Doisy also made important contributions to endocrinology by isolating several sex hormones, including estrogen, and elucidating their chemical structures.